1    IBRAR.V 

OP  Tin 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


IFT    OF 


Class 


m 


• 


.IX 


ABO 

EINAMC 


B0" 


\ 


Behold  I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door, 
and  no  man  can  shut  it : 

— Revelation  III  :  8. 


"  Thy  princes  are  rebellious, 
and  companions  of  thieves." 


PRINCIPALLY  ABOUT  FINANCE 

Financers  and  the  People  They  Finance 

(With  a  Few  Digressions  into  Kindred  Subjects) 


BY 


ONE  OF  THE  RANSOM-PAYERS 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


One  of  the  old  meanings  of  "  feynaunce," 
according  to  the  Oxford  Dictionary,  was  "  to 
pay  ransom,"  but  we  have  long  lost  sight  of 
the  original  uses  not  only  of  words  but^of 
things  also,  coming  to  look  upon  certain  things 
as  indispensable  to  society,  just  as  we  thought, 
until  lately,  that  mosquitoes,  flies,  fleas,*and 
other  pests  should  be  with  us  always. 


GIFT 


Copyright,    191  I.     By  Henry  Clifford  Stuart. 

Copyright  in  Great  Britain. 

All  rights   reserved. 


PRESS  OF 

JUDD   &  DETWEILER,    INC., 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


THE  WRITER'S  APOLOGY. 

I  approach  the  subjects  of  national  finance  and 
of  banking  in  the  United  States,  not  as  a  professor  of 
economics  but  as  an  earnest  seeker  after  light,  well 
aware  how  unqualified  I  am  for  the  task. 

I  would  have  liked  to  devote  much  more  time  to 
investigation,  but  as  certain  interests  have  already 
begun  to  agitate  for  changes  in  our  system,  and  as  I 
believe  I  can  perceive  their  reasons  for  so  doing,  I  feel 
impelled  to  give  my  immature  ideas  at  once  for  what 
they  may  be  worth. 

I  realize  that  my  verbiage  might  be  pruned  to 
great  advantage  and  the  article  coordinated  so  as  to 
effect  a  more  harmonious  continuity  of  ideas,  but  I 
again  plead  lack  of  time  and  give  them  just  as  they 
came  to  me,  with  all  the  digressions. 

Years  of  study  would  not  do  the  subject  justice, 
and  I  have  not  studied  it  at  all,  such  authorities  as  I 
have  so  far  glanced  at  all  dealing  with  the  matter  from 
the  orthodox  and  ancient  point  of  view.* 

And  I  apologize  in  advance  for  any  intemper- 
ance of  language,  on  the  ground  of  not  being  fitted 
temperamentally  to  view  injustice  with  equanimity. 

HENRY  CLIFFORD  STUABT. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  February,  1911. 

*  I  have  the  very  voluminous  Reports  of  the  National  Monetary  Com- 
mission before  me,  which  I  hope  to  find  time  to  read  and  which  I  may 
try  to  digest  for  future  comment,  though  there  is  no  doubt,  in  my  mind, 
that  very  hard  and  continued  digging  will  be  necessary  to  arrive  at  the 
material  requisite  for  the  presentation  of  a  simple  balance-sheet  such  as 
may  be  understood  by  common  man. 


"For  I  mean  not  that  other  men  be  eased,  and  ye 
burdened : 

But  by  an  equality,  that  now  at  this  time  your  abun- 
dance may  be  a  supply  for  their  want,  that  their  abun- 
dance also  may  be  a  supply  for  your  want ;  that  there 
may  be  equality: 

As  it  is  written,  He  that  had  gathered  much  had 
nothing  over;  and  he  that  had  gathered  little  had  no 
lack." 

— II  Corinthians,  viii,  13/15. 


TO  MY  WIFE 


Who  loves  righteousness  and  hates 
inequity  as  much  as  1  do,  but  whose  spirit, 
alas,  for  me,  is  far  gentler  than  my  own. 


Speech  is  of  man— imperfect. 


.f  OF   THE 

I   UNIVERSITY 


In  the  beginning 

God  created 

The  heaven  and  the  earth.* 


We  know  what  happens  when  any  cell  of  our 
bodies  disregards  the  rights  of  other  cells  and  pro- 
ceeds to  develop  along  independent  lines  —  It's  prompt 
elimination  by  the  knife  does  not  always  avail  to  save 
us  from  dissolution. 

Nor  can  the  human  mind  conceive  anything  but 
destruction  as  the  dire  result  of  any  member  of  the 
solar  system,  or  of  this  system  itself,  for  that  matter, 
happening  to  depart  from  it's  prescribed  course. 

God  has  not  chosen  to  act  independently  but  has 
made  all  things  interdependent,  which  is  but  another 
way  of  saying  that  all  things  are  one. 

Nature  is  centrally  governed  everywhere,  her 
multitudinous  centers  being  themselves  centrally  gov- 
erned still. 

We  can  contemplate  a  center  with  hope,  but  the 
thought,  or  lack  of  thought,  of  an  infinite  leads  no- 
where but  to  despair. 

When  those  angels  who  thought  to  be  indepen- 
dent were  cast  into  the  outer  darkness  as  yet  unil- 
lumined  by  God,  it  must  have  been  done  by  what  we 

*  And  he  has  not  parted  with  the  title  since. 

(7) 


8 

think  of  as  centrifugal  force,  which  may  be  but  the 
withdrawal  of  real  force  —  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
centripetal  force,  through  the  cohesive  and  conserving 
results  of  which  alone,  multicellular  and  communita- 
tive  existence  is  possible. 

The  centrifugal  force,  or  withdrawal  of  force,  is 
destructive  — 

—  But  Force  or  power  itself  is  eternal,  and  as 
such  is  to  be  reverenced.  It  is  only  the  many  errors  in 
it's  application  by  developing  man  that  is  to  be  de- 
plored. 

But  although  it  is  natural  for  man  to  rebel  at 
the  misapplication  of  power  by  his  fellows  to  their  own 
selfish  ends,  he  should  carefully  observe  that  it  is  not 
the  centralization,  which  is  the  only  way  that  power 
can  be  applied  at  all,  but  the  misapplication  itself 
which  is  at  fault  and  worked  against  him. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  founders  of  this 
republic  failed  to  make  this  distinction.  They  had 
been  so  cursed  by  the  ignorantly  selfish  misapplication 
of  power  in  other  lands,  that  they  sought  to  harness  or 
destroy  power  itself  by  reversing  the  order  of  creation 
and  establishing  a  number  of  independent  states  held 
together  by  a  so-called  central  government  itself  with- 
out a  center  —  Eesponsibility  had  no  resting-place  any- 
where. 

So  queer  has  been  our  attitude  of  mind  on  the 
question  of  our  nationality,  that  the  government  of  the 


nation  has  no  single  power  that  it  has  not  had  to  fight 
for  and  which  has  not  been  unwillingly  granted. 

The  states  all  still  claim  sovereignty. 

It  is  but  a  short  while  since  we  beheld  the  fed- 
eral health  officials  in  conflict  with  the  health  officials 
of  a  state  as  to  whether  or  no  plagues  should  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  our  ports.  This  fight  was  on  for  years 
and  it  is  only  lately  that  this  federal  right  has  been 
generally  recognized. 

Some  day  we  will  rewrite  the  constitution  and 
rewrite  it  short  —  but  so  broad,  that  no  other  Hamilton 
or  Marshall  will  be  required  to  corkscrew  out  its  sup- 
posedly implied  significances. 

It  will  not  require  over  five  words,  and  these 
might  be ;  —  We  are  the  American  Nation. 

Then  the  different  legislatures  of  our  many 
states  will  no  longer  go  their  own  sweet  way,  grinding 
out  bad  laws  or  abolishing  good  ones,  all  "for  a  con- 
sideration'7, with  utter  disregard  for  the  statutes  of 
their  neighbors. 

As  things  are  at  present  a  man  may  be  married 
in  the  south  against  his  consent,  and  in  the  north  with- 
out knowingly  giving  his  consent ;  may  remain  married 
in  one  state  while  divorced  in  another ;  be  crazy  in  New 
York  and  sane  in  Virginia ;  injuncted  by  a  Judge  in  one 
county  and  disjuncted  by  his  colleague  in  the  next. 


10 

If  he 's  got  money  enough  to  fetch  the  right  law- 
yer, he  can  incorporate  and  reach  the  middle  ground 
where  no  law  applies ;  And  if  he  happen  to  be  really 
rich  he  can  even  commit  murder  with  perfect  impunity. 

New  Orleans  can  kill  the  Italians  and  'Frisco 
run  the  Japs  into  the  Bay,  on  which  occasions  it  is 
usual  for  the  President  himself  to  inform  his  great  and 
good  friends,  the  King  of  Italy  and  the  Emperor  of 
Japan,  by  means  of  a  private  autograph,  that  deeply 
as  he  regrets  the  occurrences,  there  is  no  remedy 
therefor,  Louisiana  and  California  being  SOVER- 
EIGN STATES,  and  that  where  the  American  gov- 
ernment dare  not  put  it's  foot,  it  would  be  indelicate 
of  them  to  think  of  so  doing. 

Of  course  the  King  of  Italy  and  the  Emperor  of 
Japan,  not  really  minding  the  loss  of  a  few  subjects 
more  or  less,  wish  to  be  gracious  and  allow  the  matter 
to  blow  over,  still,  not  being  Americans  themselves, 
they  find  the  situation  beyond  their  mental  grasp. 

However,  if  they  are  strictly  up-to-date,  and 
have  profited  by  past  experience  to  add  an  American 
Legal-light  (furnished  by  or  schooled  in  the  State 
Department)  to  their  establishment,  as  a  majordomo 
or  counselor,  he  will  inform  them  that  we  have  to  em- 
ploy our  nine  wisest  men,  who  do  not  always  give 
an  unanimous  opinion,  to  tell  Congress  what  the  Con- 
stitution really  means,  and  that  however  we  may  fight 
about  the  matter  among  ourselves,  we  have  always  de- 
clined to  discuss  it  with  outsiders. 


11 

And  if  the  Emperor  happen  to  have  sent  the 
King  a  copy  of  Togo's  " Quotations  from  American 
Statesmen "  (private  circulation  only),  he  will  find  that 
Togo,  having  evidently  been  overcome  by  the  mass  of 
conflicting  material  on  this  subject,  dropped  it  with 
just  one  quote;  —  "Oh  lowest  heaven,  what's  the  Con- 
stitution among  friends ?!" 

It  will  take  many  a  long  year  yet  to  get  States- 
Eights  foolishness  entirely  out  of  our  system  of  malad- 
ministration and  confined  to  it's  proper  sphere; 

For  despite  the  recent  attempt  to  use  the  word 
"American"  on  the  shields  before  our  Diplomatic  and 
Consular  Offices,  we  are  still  the  people  of  the  Far- 
from-United  States. 

The  result  of  this  political  abortion  is  that  ma- 
lignant growths  have  appeared  so  rapidly  that  the  can- 
cerous condition  of  the  body-politic  is  today  apparent 
to  all; 

But  it  is  fortunate  that  the  people  now  see  the 
danger  and,  recognizing  the  utter  inefficacy  of  the  nos- 
trums with  which  the  doctors  of  "the  law"  continue  to 
flood  them,  have  themselves  begun  to  apply  the  knife 
to  the  very  form  of  government  itself ; 

For,  being  a  young  people,  we  will  undoubtedly 
survive  and  wax  strong  again. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak  of  government 
as  a  whole,  but  merely  of  the  tap-root  which  supports 
the  tree  —  Finance ; 


12 

And  American  finance  begins  with  Alexander 
Hamilton ! 

Hamilton's  enemies  said  that  he  had  no  hand  in 
the  framing  of  the  Constitntion,  —  which  seems  to  be 
the  only  kindly  thing  they  ever  said  of  him; 

But  they  were  compelled  to  admit  that  he  alone 
was  responsible  for  the  financial  arrangements  with- 
out which  our  government,  such  as  it  was,  could  not 
have  endured. 

Now,  the  real  achievement  of  Hamilton,  to  my 
mind,  was  not  his  great  feat  in  establishing  a  financial 
system  which  is  followed  in  it's  essentials  by  our  gov- 
ernment to  this  day ;  not  in  his  having  created  a  public 
credit  to  fill  the  void  then  existing;  not  in  his  having 
augmented  the  circulating  medium  and  supplied  the 
financial  machinery  requisite  to  revive  business ;  not  in 
his  having  laid  down  the  lines  on  which  this  country 
has  since  been  developed ;  — 

But  in  his  having  given  vitality  to  the  dry 
clauses  of  a  paper  constitution  and  succeeding,  where 
others  had  failed,  in  giving  strength  to  the  central  gov- 
ernment and  thus  allowing  A  Nation  to  come  into  ex- 
istence— in  his  having  been  the  first  to  realize  the  help- 
less insignificance  of  a  state. 

But  if  this  remarkable  man  was  An  American  at 
a  time  when  all  others  were  states-righters,  if  it  mat- 
tered not  to  him  whether  the  Capitol  were  north  or 
south,  east  or  west,  how  much  more  striking  still  was 


13 

Ms  attitude  compared  with  that  of  the  "States-man" 
of  today,  who  always  represents  private  interest,  some- 
times represents  local  interest  (when  not  conflicting 
with  private  special  privilege),  but  who  seldom  gives 
a  thought  to  the  interests  of  America  at  large ! 

It  is  idle  to  speak  about  the  "consent  of  the 
governed"  —  the  constitution  itself  provides  that  the 
majority  shall  govern  the  minority,  with  or  without 
their  consent — and  for  many  years  now  we  have  pre- 
sented the  curious  spectacle  of  an  oligarchy  governing 
a  free  majority  against  it's  will. 

Some  of  us  are  now  approaching  a  fitness  for 
self-government,  but  in  Hamilton's  time  we  were  no 
more  so  fit  than  are  many  so-called  Eepublics  in 
Spanish- America  today.  We  will  have  an  ideal  govern- 
ment when  the  large  majority  are  fit,  and  not  before  — 
man's  very  nature  makes  it  otherwise  impossible. 

But  it  is  a  sad  commentary  on  our  people  that 
the  more  progressive  Spanish- American  states,  all  of 
whom  followed  our  lead  in  their  form  of  government, 
should  have  been  the  first  to  find  it  unfit  and  to  modify 
it  to  the  needs  of  the  people.*  As  we  are  not  all  fools, 
we  must  be  long-suffering. 

A  man  of  Hamilton's  transcendent  genius  must 
have  been  as  fully  alive  to  the  natural  rights  of  man 
as  was  his  great  opponent  Jefferson,  but  he,  thinking 
where  the  other  dreamed,  perceived  that  general 
government  must  first  be  established  and  order  secured 
before  the  people  could  even  hope  to  progress. 

*The  admirable  article  on  the  " Causes  of  Political  Corruption,"  by 
Prof.  Henry  Jones  Ford,  in  "Scribner's"  Magazine,  January,  1911. 


14 

Generations  of  serfdom  had  set  the  minds  of  men 
in  narrow  molds,  many  of  which  are  still  unbroken. 
Liberty  they  had  just  achieved;  Equality  (before  the 
law)  was  their 's  for  a  while;  but  Brotherhood!— 
"Brotherhood"  is  but  another  name  for  civilization 
itself,  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  body  of  Christ  has  not 
as  yet  sufficed  for  man  to  attain  thereunto. 

Such  were  the  conditions  when  it  became  neces- 
sary for  Hamilton  to  finance  our  government. 

The  mass  could  not  perceive  then,  any  more  than 
they  can  now,  that  man  does  not  live  by  Gold  alone 
but  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow;  they  could  not  realize 
that  they  could  dispense  with  the  silver  and  gold  held 
by  the  Class,  whereas  this  long  uninured  minority 
could  not  dispense  with  their  labor,  but  positively 
counted  upon  them  not  only  to  sweatily  wrench  from 
the  soil  the  products  indispensable  to  the  continued 
existence  of  both,  but  to  produce  a  surplus  which  would 
enable  them  to  swell  their  capital. 

So  Hamilton  supported  the  government  and  set 
the  wheels  of  progress  in  motion  by  using  the  only 
means  then  possible  —  that  of  appealing  to  the  selfish 
interests  of  a  Class  —  the  Bank  was  a  mere  expedient. 

Those  who  have  had  an  opportunity  to  get 
glimpses  of  history  in  the  making  know  how  often  the 
powers-that-be  are  themselves  unaware  of  the  hidden 
motives  of  those  who  lead  them  to  act  as  they  do  ; 


15 

Thus  even  when  we  are  fortunate  enough  to  get 
accounts  of  events  as  they  really  happened,  we  are  not 
always  sure  why  they  happened  ; 

But  Hamilton  seems  to  have  been  open  and  di- 
rect both  in  thought  and  act  —  Jefferson  indirect. 

Now,  when  a  positive  character  and  a  dreamy, 
vacillating  nature  come  together,  one  is  never  in  doubt 
as  to  the  outcome  —  Perhaps  Jefferson's  greatest  claim 
to  distinction  is  having  given  Hamilton  the  aid  with- 
out which  he  would  not  have  been  able  to  put  his 
financial  measures  through,  though  he  has  robbed  him- 
self of  the  credit  through  his  posthumous  disclaimers. 

It  was  fortunate  that  Hamilton  was  able  to  catch 
Jefferson  at  the  psychological  moment,  for  the  views 
of  the  latter  on  contracts  were  as  illogical  as  Madison's., 
and  his  ideas  on  finance  hazier  still. 

But  the  consequences  of  his  act  were  too  much 
for  Jefferson  —  He  could  not  bear  to  see  the  people 
being  robbed  by  the  crafty  —  the  Bank  was  such  a 
"good  thing"  that  it  grieved  him  that  the  whole  people 
were  not  "in  on  it." 

Despite  certain  smaller  and  despicable  sides  to 
Jefferson 's  character,  he  was  a  great  man  —  our  first 
Democrat  —  but  he  forgot  what  Paul  tells  us  of  ex- 
pediency, and  could  not  realize  that  his  ideas  were  in 
advance  of  the  times. 

He  seems  to  have  been  positively  shocked  when 
Hamilton  told  him  that  man  could  be  governed  only 


16 

by  force  or  interest,  and  yet  man  had  ever  been  so 
governed  and  is  so  governed  still. 

As  a  philosopher  Jefferson  was  great,  but  in  the 
government  of  the  time  he  was  sadly  misplaced. 

The  Democrats  today  point  with  pride  to  Lincoln 
as  one  of  them.  It  is  true  that  he  was  a  lover  of  the 
people  —  what  just  man  is  not?  —  But  Lincoln  was 
more  than  a  democrat  —  he  was  a  great  executive, 
which  no  man  can  be  who  is  afraid  of  power. 

Imagine  Jefferson  in  Lincoln's  shoes  —  but  the 
diametrically  opposite  results  we  would  have  had  are 
too  distressing  to  contemplate. 

For  many  years  Hamilton's  Bank  of  the  United 
States  prospered  —  for  many  years  it's  private  stock- 
holders of  the  Class  waxed  fat  at  the  expense  of  the 
Mass,  but  it's  expediency  was  recognized  even  by  such 
•eminent  later  statesmen  as  Clay,  Webster  and  Calhoun, 
though  they  viewed  the  close  connection  of  the  govern- 
ment with  a  privileged  moneyed  corporation  of  such 
enormous  means  with  lively  distrust  and  grave  ap- 
prehension. 

The  people's  minds  were  not  then  ripe  for  any- 
thing else.  The  question  is  I  —  Are  the  people 's  minds 
ready  for  anything  else  today,  now  that  the  Class  is 
preparing  to  spring  another  "United  States  Bank"  on 
them  (privately  owned  as  before)  ? 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  follow  the  history  of 
Banking  here  or  elsewhere.  Andrew  Jackson 'o  fight  on 


17 


the  Bank  and  the  disastrous  record  of  the  State  Banks 
is  remembered  by  men  alive  today. 

Now  that  another  "Central  Bank"  is  proposed 
for  us,  we  should  consider  things  as  they  are ! 


The  evolution  of  a  utilitarian  and  equitable 
Means  for  Exchange  can  progress  no  faster  than  the 
Mass  itself  evolves,  and  as  knowledge  has  progressed 
to  a  point  demanding  specialization  in  some  one  branch 
thereof,  we  cannot  expect  the  advanced  intellects  and 
the  advanced  spiritual  natures  to  be  often  found  in 
the  same  persons! 

But  even  were  this  not  so,  the  tendency  of  our 
democratic  republic,  save  in  great  crises  when  general 
attention  chooses  the  best  men  to  avert  disaster,  is  to 
entrust  the  governmental  powers  either  to  fools  or 
knaves,  and  never  has  this  been  more  so  than  during 
the  great  constructive  period  following  our  civil  war. 

And  the  Class  which  toils  or  spins  not  but  which 
lives  on  the  labor  of  others,  knows  this,  and  knowing 
that  the  only  way  it  can  continue  to  so  live  is  by 
"  legalizing "  injustice,  deliberately  undertakes  to  and 
has  controlled  the  government  by  buying  elections  and 
having  "laws"  made  to  suit  it's  own  ends. 

But  of  all  the  special-privileges  with  which 
"law"  has  afflicted  this  country,  the  private  monopoly 
of  the  Means  for  Exchange  is  by  all  odds  the  heaviest 


18 

tax  of  them  all,  —  and  the  most  despicable,  because  it  is 
not  an  open  highway-robbery  like  the  Tariff,  but  the 
hidden  onslaught  of  an  organized  and  wealthy  gang  of 
pickpockets  on  the  purses  of  the  public,  such  as  would 
put  any  member  of  the  lesser-pickpockets  trust  to 
shame  on  account  of  the  utter  lack  of  danger  in  the 
game. 

Notwithstanding  "  Black  Friday "  and  the  many 
"Panics"  before  and  since,  our  people,  thanks  to 
the  subsidized  press,  have  not  been  able  to  make  out 
where  the  trouble  lies. 

The  people  have  not  as  yet  perceived  the  great 
difference  between  the  intrinsic  worth  of  money  (what 
it  costs  to  produce  it),  it's  uses  when  allowed  to  cir- 
culate freely  as  a  means  for  exchange,  and  the  crimi- 
nal way  it  may  be  cornered  by  financial  highwaymen 
to  rob  them  of  the  product  of  their  labor. 

Our  Government  has  not  yet  recognized  the  right 
of  it's  people  to  a  means  for  exchange,  and  has  always 
disclaimed  it's  duty  to  provide  such,  on  the  ground 
that  " Banking  is  a  Trade." 

Now,  "Banking,"  as  it  prefers  to  call  itself, — 
presumably  on  account  of  the  odium  in  which  money- 
lending  has  always  been  held  —  is  "a  Trade"  —  the 
most  contemptible  of  all  —  a  trading  upon  the  necessi- 
ties of  all,  and  the  government  may  come  to  find  that  it 
has  duties  in  connection  herewith  of  the  very  highest 
order  —  For  be  it  remembered  that  the  money-lender 
deals  not  with  paupers. 


19 

How  striking  in  contrast  was  the  action  of  the 
British  Government  in  riding  the  last  panics  in  Eng- 
land by  authorizing  the  Bank  of  England  to  print 
and  issue  notes  as  fast  as  called  for  and  until  the 
demand  ceased  —  which  was  very  soon,  for  people  do 
not  want  their  money  when  they  are  satisfied  they  can 
get  it  on  demand  —  all  they  wish  to  be  assured  of  is  a 
means  for  exchange. 

This  was  the  first  and  I  believe  the  only  instance 
of  a  government  providing  it's  people  with  a  means 
for  exchange  —  for  the  Bank  did  not  print  those  notes 
for  the  use  of  the  government,  but  with  the  consent 
if  not  by  the  advice  of  the  government,  and  for  issue 
only  in  payment  of  deposits  and  in  loans  on  good  se- 
curity. 

Which  was  quite  a  different  matter  from  the 
issue  of  fiat  notes  by  our  States  at  the  time  of  the 
revolution,  and  by  our  federal  government  during  the 
civil  war,  which  were  for  their  own  uses  entirely,  the 
first  remaining  repudiated  to  this  day. 


*•****#*** 


Although  work  and  service  to  one's  fellows  alone 
bring  happiness,  there  seems  to  be  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  a  large  class  to  lead  an  idle,  selfish,  rapid,  worthless 
life,  which  can  only  be  done  through  the  acquisition 
of  great  wealth. 

Now,  though  thrifty,  far-seeing  folk,  sufficiently 
intelligent  to  profit  by  example,  and  perhaps  favored 


20 

by  hardship  in  early  youth,  may  store  up  sufficient 
of  the  necessaries  of  life  to  provide  for  their  needs 
when  no  longer  able  to  labor ;  and  though  such  people 
frequently  pass  part  of  their  competency  on  to  their 
descendants,  so  that  in  the  course  of  time  there  has 
arisen  a  worthy  class  in  sufficiently  easy  circumstances 
to  be  able  to  divert  part  of  their  time  from  labor  to 
self -improvement,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  no  great 
fortune  has  ever  been  acquired  in  any  other  way  than 
by  gross  injustice  to  others,  for  whatever  the  condi- 
tions and  however  supremely  gifted  the  individual, 
nature  did  not  fit  him,  mentally  or  physically,  to  do 
the  work  of  a  thousand,  one  hundred  thousand  or  a 
million  or  more  of  his  fellows  —  It  is  the  "Law"  which 
has  so  far  permitted  him  to  rob  them  of  the  profits 
of  their  labor,  either  directly  or  through  the  monopoly 
of  the  natural  resources  for  all. 

It  used  to  be  more  dangerous  than  heresy  to  pro- 
test against  the  "Law",  but  our  minds  are  beginning 
to  break  their  fetters  and  we  are  actually  daring  to 
demand  that  the  unjust  "Law"  be  unmade,  recognizing 
that  "Law"  and  JUSTICE  have  so  far  had  little 
to  do,  the  one  with  the  other. 

This  disrespect  for  the  "Law"  is  growing,  as  it 
must  for  everything  that  miscarries.  "Laws"  are 
multiplying  so  fast  that  they  are  not  enforced  even 
when  remembered. 

Now  this  is  a  very  serious  condition  of  mind  for 
a  naturally  law-abiding  people  to  get  into — so  serious 


21 

\ 

that  prompt  measures  are  necessary  to  remove  the 

cause  of  the  distrust  before  we  pass  from  disrespect 
to  open  disregard  —  before  we  break  all  fetters  of 
what  Herbert  Spencer  rightly  calls  "the  great  super- 
stition of  law." 

Our  Legislative  Halls  are  filled  with  Lawyers, 
the  very  Class  whose  interest  it  is  to  multiply  rather 
than  to  reduce  and  codify  the  "Law." 

And  with  it  all  we  have  come  to  acquire  a  new 
standard  of  Honor  by  which  a  "Gentleman"  in  Office 
may  cease  for  the  time  being  to  be  an  honest  man, 
commit  all  manner  of  ex  legal  crimes,  and  step  out 
again  with  his  decayed  personal  honor  so  covered  by 
the  prestige  of  having  gotten  what  he  was  sent  after, 
that  he  will  still  be  unhesitatingly  received  in  our 
"most  respectable  circles." 

But  should  he  dare  to  follow  the  dictates  of  his 
own  conscience,  instead  of  acting  "like  a  gentleman", 
the  President  himself  will  inform  him  that  our's  is  a 
"government  by  party"  and  that  unless  he  "stands 
pat"  and  votes  with  "the  other  gentlemen",  he  will 
be  "read-out"  of  the  same  —  for  how  are  those  who 
have  bought  the  administration  to  be  repaid  if  not 
granted  the  special  privilege  of  robbing  their  fellow 
citizens  ? 

Ostracism  is  needed  very  badly  in  this  country, 
and  the  demand  will  sooner  or  later  create  the  sup- 
ply —  but  it  may  be  of  a  different  brand  than  the  Presi- 
dent had  in  mind. 


22 

This  so-called  " First-Class-Power"  is  afflicted 
with  a  government  which  would  put  the  most  benighted 
to  the  blush.  It  has  long  ceased  to  be  a  government 
for  the  people  and  has  so  fallen  as  to  become  the 
reward  of  fortune-hunting  politicians  and  the  rest- 
ing-place of  an  occasional  moneyed-ass. 

But  no  one  can  long  retard  progress.  The  minds 
of  the  people  are  not  as  they  were,  so  the  government 
cannot  remain  where  roguely  degenerates  seek  to  keep 
it  —  Progress  is  "in  the  air." 

Now  there  is  one  cess  which  those  necessary 
and  most  sanitary  beings,  the  * '  Muck-Bakers ",  have 
not  sufficiently  exposed  to  light  and  air,  possibly  be- 
cause the  Monetary  Commission  inaugurated  by  that 
eminent  statesman,  the  late  Senator  Aldrich,  has 
publicly  taken  the  matter  in  hand. 

But  as  the  chunks  of  wisdom  emanating  from 
the  minds  of  the  august  thinkers  of  the  upper  house 
have  been  frequently  too  heavy  for  the  public's 
stomach,  it  would  be  well  before  placing  ourselves 
entirely  in  their  hands,  as  has  been  our  unfortunate 
custom,  to  consider  the  matter  somewhat  for  our- 
selves. 

The  Question  of  the  Currency  and  Banking  —  It 
has  afflicted  us  for  an  hundred  years  and  more  —  and 
the  greatest  reason  for  alarm  is  that  the  "Upper 
House "  should  now  begin  to  agitate  the  matter.  When 
have  they  ever  had  the  people's  interests  at  heart  — 
they  were  created  for  no  such  purpose. 


23 

We  all  know  something's  the  matter  —  What  is 


it? 


Disinterested  people  have  never  been  able  to 
bring  the  matter  up  for  public  discussion  without  the 
real  issue  being  immediately  and  intentionally  con- 
fused and  obscured  by  the  subsidized  press. 

Before  considering  the  question,  let  us  see  what 
our  present  "  currency  "  consists  of;  — 

Without  referring  at  all  to  the  origins  of 
•"money",  which  have  been  fully  set  forth  by  many 
writers,  or  examining  the  original  provisions  of  and 
.amendments  to  our  own  constitution  providing  there- 
for, let  us  try  to  tabulate  our  money  and  currency  as 
they  exist  today. 

First  —  Our  "standard",  Gold,  which  when 
coined,  forms  our  only  real  "dollars"  —  the  sole  legal 
tender*  —  coined  in  five,  ten  and  twenty-dollar  pieces, 
smaller  pieces  having  fallen  into  disfavor  and  ceased 

*The  description  the  government  gives  of  our  money  is  confusing;  — 

It  calls  the  silver  dollars  "standard",  whereas  gold  is  now  our  sole 
standard;  Silver  dollars  are  legal  tender  and  they  are  not  legal  tender; 
Greenbacks,  now  called  by  the  more  dignified  name  of  United  States 
notes,  are  legal  tender  but  they  have  a  string  tied  to  them;  —  And  the 
other  currency  is  very  much  mixed  indeed  ;  — 

Still  no  one  can  blame  the  poor  government  for  keeping  up  a  tree,  for 
there  is  a  very  fierce  dog  at  the  bottom. 

But  if  anyone  really  wishes  to  know  what  is  what  it  is  not,  I  refer  him 
to  page  24  of  Circular  No.  52  of  the  United  States  Treasury  Department, 
July  \V  1  10. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  little  leaflet  however,  we  will  refer  to  gold  as  the 
sole  legal  tender,  reminding  all  hair  splitters  that  all  they  can  say  to  the 
contrary  will  affect  the  argument  only  in  degree,  and  in  very  small  degree 
,at  that. 


24 

to  be  coined  long  since.     Demand  for  those  named 
falling-off  rapidly; 

Second  —  Silver  "dollars",  which  are  heavily 
debased  tokens,  now  seldom  seen  save  on  the  vanish- 
ing frontier  where  the  habits  of  the  people  have  not  as 
yet  fully  accustomed  them  to  the  use  of  paper  ; 

Third  —  Copper  coins  —  debased,  Nickel  coins 
—  debased  and  Small  silver  coins  —  debased,  all  mere 
tokens  used  as  " dollar-splits",  convenience-coins  or 
"change;" 

Fourth  —  Semi-civilized  currency,  as  follows ;  — 
' '  Greenbacks ' ',  or  government  fiat-notes ; 

Gold-Notes,  or  government  warehouse-receipts 
for  gold ; 

Silver-Notes,  or  government  warehouse-receipts 
for  a  metal  which  can  still  be  sold  for  a  trifle  over  half 
the  face-value  of  the  receipt ; 

"National"  Bank-Notes,  or  subsidiary-notes 
which  private  banks  are  permitted  to  traffic  with  upon 
hypothecating  with  the  government  the  government's 
own  bonds  as  "security"  for  their  issue.  These  notes 
are  also  purely  fiat  notes  of  not  so  good  (misleading)  a 
grade  as  the  "greenbacks",  for  there  is  nothing  more 
behind  them  than  there  is  behind  the  greenbacks,  the 
government  having  spent  and  not  holding  in  it's 
vaults,  the  gold  borrowed  upon  the  bonds. 

Eailroad-notes,  lately  authorized  to  the  extent  of. 
five  hundred  millions,  for  a  starter,  and  supposed  to 


25 

bxe  used  when  the  private  banks  have  a  greater  de- 
mand for  money  at  interest  than  they  can  supply, 
when  they  will  be  issued  to  them  by  our  government 
upon  putting  up  railroad  bonds  as  " collateral".  This 
is  "asset-currency",  pure  and  simple,  to  which  one 
only  of  the  main  objections,  is  the  special  privilege 
conferred ; 

Clearing-House-Certificates  —  a  very  modern 
but  highly  artificial  way  of  patching  cracks  in  our  cur- 
rency "system"  when  strained  to  the  breaking-point. 
They  "increase  the  currency;" 

Checks,  or  private  orders  for  currency*  -  more 
important  than  all  the  others  put  together,  for  without 
this  device  the  rottenness  of  the  system  would  be 
apparent  and  all  business  would  come  to  a  stand-still ; 

Check-Kiting  —  the  promise  of  small  financiers 
to  liquidate  and  provide  the  funds  ordered  before  the 
orders  reach  their  destination.  The  big  financiers  dis- 
courage this  practice  as  much  as  possible,  but  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  it  "increases  the  volume  of  the  cur- 
rency", which  is  the  end  all  have  in  view; 

Drafts  —  an  old  means  for  exchange,  no  longer 
in  such  general  use  here  as  in  Europe ; 

Overdrafts  —  or  orders  on  banks  for  other  peo- 
ple 's  money  —  a  rather  careless  way  into  which  the 
banks  have  fallen  of  lending  our  money  to  favorites; 

Loans  —  must,  in  my  opinion,  be  included  under 
this  head,  for  they  are  not  advances  to  irresponsible 


*  Unknown  before  the  year  1781. 

8-G 


26 

parties  but  a  partial  and  temporary  "  liquidation "  by 
the  borrower,  of  Wealth  previously  accumulated  by 
him.  (With  " unsecured "  loans  the  bank  assumes 
that  the  borrower  is  "good"  and  takes  the  responsi- 
bility.) They  "increase  the  circulation"  just  as  checks 
increase  it,  and  although  there  is  no  "money"  behind 
them  (the  labor  having  been  turned  into  "money"  and 
this  in  turn  into  "wealth"),  the  possessor  of  "ac- 
cumulated wealth"  is,  to  my  mind,  entitled  to  the  prior 
right  —  if  there  be  choice  of  right  —  to  the  use  of  the 
Means  for  Exchange ; 

Term-Deposits — should  be  included  here,  as  they 
are  nothing  but  loans  to  the  banks  at  lower  rates  than 
these  lend  at  —  They  materially  "assist  circulation". 

Certified-Checks,  Certificates  of  Deposit,  and 
Certificates  of  Special-Deposits-in-Kind  —  do  not  "in- 
crease the  currency"  but  decidedly  restrict  it,  and  are 
therefore  mentioned  only  to  be  excluded. 

Having  done  our  best  to  tabulate  our  "cur- 
rency", let  us  consider  whether  it  be  still  expedient  to 
permit  a  Class-System,  using  such  robbing  make- 
shifts, to  endure? 

This  is  the  age  of  collective  effort  —  Semi-Civi- 
lized man  no  longer  lives  of  or  for  himself  alone. 

But  as  yet  we  have  done  nothing  collectively  to- 
wards providing  ourselves  with  an  equitable  means  for 
the  exchange  of  such  individual  proportion  of  our  col- 
lective product  as  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to  secure 
unto  ourselves. 


27 
\ 

We  established  our  government  intending  to  pro- 
mote the  welfare  of  all,  and  we  permit  it  to  pledge  the 
general  welfare  by  occasionally  borrowing  money  for 
all  on  bonds.  But  the  government  which  we  established 
does  not  permit  us  to  supply  the  money  directly  our- 
selves, as  in  done  elsewhere  when  same  is  required  for 
general  need,  for  the  Special  Interests  which  have 
monopolized  the  money  "Trade"  insist  that  these 
bonds  be  executed  in  large  denominations  only  and 
issued  in  such  large  allotments  as  to  be  inaccessible  to 
the  people  direct  and  SOLD  only  through  themselves. 

And  the  really  amusing  part  of  it  is  that  they 
don't  put  up  a  dollar  themselves  to  buy  them  with  but 
"effect  the  purchase "  (and  they  certainly  have  a  very 
strong  purchase)  with  the  money  which  we,  having 
nowhere 's  else  to  put  it,  have  been  compelled  to  deposit 
with  them,  after  which  they  allow  us  to  take  the  bonds 
off  their  hands  at  an  increased  price. 

Such  is  one  of  the  many  special  privileges  of  the 
banking  "trade",  though  this  particular  one  is  usually 
limited  to  the  "Big  Ones"  (those  who  have  fattened 
faster  than  their  fellows)  who  name  the  Secretary 
of  the  Public  Treasury. 

But  issuing  bonds  is  not  providing  a  means  for 
exchange. 

Where  does  our  "currency"  come  from,  and 
who  provides  it? 


28 

The  "Guinea's  stamp "  adds  nothing  to  the 
value  of  the  gold  it  contains  —  this  passed  in  exchange 
generations  before  the  coin  was  thought  of ;  — 

The  government  in  stamping  the  gold  taken  to  it, 
does  not  provide  a  means  for  exchange ; 

The  government  in  issuing  a  warehouse-receipt, 
in  the  form  of  a  treasury-note,  for  the  gold  left  with  it, 
has  not  provided  a  means  for  exchange ; 

The  government  has  provided  —  nothing; 

The  individual  himself  has,  at  great  la,bor  pro- 
vided something  which  hitherto  his  fellows  have  been 
willing  to  accept  in  exchange  for  food  and  other  things 
which  they  have  provided  by  their  labor. 

But  as  gold  is  not  only  cumbrous  but  dangerous 
to  carry  round,  lest  he  be  robbed  directly  by  the 
smaller,  manlier  thieves,  he  takes  it  to  his  govern- 
ment and  asks  a  receipt  for  it. 

Is  man  not  yet  civilized  enough  to  provide  some 
means  of  exchange  more  easily  and  safely  handled 
and  less  wasteful  of  human  labor? 

Individually  we  have  so  far  failed,  and  individ- 
ually we  always  must  fail,  for  this  is  not  an  individual 
question  but  one  where  common  understanding  must 
precede  common  consent  —  and  not  alone  consent  but  a 
positive  fight  against  privilege  long  entrenched  and 
which  knows  just  what  to  expect — but  the  common 
understanding  must  be  thorough  or  the  fight  will  be 
of  no  avail. 


29 

Even  in  France,  the  country  which  seems  always 
able  to  supply  others  with  gold  when  wanted,  the  small 
manufacturer  gets  along  well  enough  in  lean  years, 
but  in  the  prosperous  years  he  is  compelled  to  go  to 
the  small  money-lenders  or  to  the  government  pawn- 
shop to  get  "capital"  wherewith  to  execute  his  in- 
creased orders ; — 

And  the  greater  the  "prosperity"  —  the  greater 
the  number  of  orders  —  the  better  for  the  money- 
lenders and  the  pawnbroker. 

Is  there  anything  the  matter  with  their  currency 
system?  A  plentitude  of  gold  in  the  country  seems 
of  no  avail,  for  the  non-producer  holds-up  the  pro- 
ducer and  takes  his  "rake-off"  just  the  same ! 

If  Gold  be  the  SOLE  "Legal"  tender,  then  we 
are  all  doing  business  ILLEGALLY  —  for  we  are  not 
doing  it  with  gold  but  on  CREDIT,  which  is  a  very 
dangerous  thing  to  all  but  the  money-lending  class,  for 
in  our  country  none  but  the  rich  may  hope  to  escape 
the  consequences  of  the  "law." 

Our  Treasury  reports  as  "money  in  circulation" 
all  but  that  in  it's  own  vaults  —  Nothing  could  be  more 
misleading. 

The  Banks  speak  of  "money  in  circulation" 
when  they  have  put  all  but  the  "legal"  reserve  (and  by 
circumventing  the  "law",  they  use  this  also)  out  at 
interest  —  when  they  have  put  the  money  of  all  of  us 
to  a  good  use  for  a  purely  selfish  end. 


30 

The  larger  banks  however,  notably  those  in  New 
York  City,  prefer  to  lend  the  money  for  gambling 
purposes,  having  had  a  special  counter  "law"  nulli- 
fying the  usury  "law",  passed  for  the  purpose,  which 
permits  them  to  let  the  money  out  —  not  at  usurious 
but  at  much  more  exorbitant  rates  of  interest,  such 
as  gamblers  and  thieves  only  can  pay,  and  money  is 
thus  withdrawn  from  it's  legitimate  channels,  to  the 
great  distress  of  business,  not  only  in  New  York  City 
but  in  every  town  in  the  State  and  indeed  throughout 
the  whole  country. 

They  speak  in  New  York  of  "the  tightness" 
caused  by  having  to  send  money  West  "to  handle  the 
crops ' '.  When  the  crops  are  paid  for  why  does  not  the 
money  remain  where  it  belongs  ?  Who  sends  it  to  New 
York  again  —  it's  owners  —  or  the  local  banks  where 
they  have  been  foolish  enough  to  place  it? 

It  is  thus  that  the  users  of  money  for  legitimate 
purposes  suffer,  and  the  limited  powers  of  our  pri- 
vately controlled  and  very  poor  "medium"  are 
stretched  to  the  utmost. 

Now,  let  any  demand  be  made  which  cannot  be 
met,  such  as  any  number  of  the  temporary  owners  of 
the  money  happening  to  demand  it  from  the  banks  at 
the  same  time  —  let  confidence  (and  it  is  truly  a  "con- 
fidence game")  suffer  any  sudden  chill,  and  the  money 
really  in  circulation  (such  part  as  the  people  are 
fortunate  enough  to  have  in  their  own  pockets)  sud- 
denly "hides  itself"  (Anglice — is  not  again  entrusted 


31 

to  the  banks)  and  demand  is  made  on  all  banks  for 
the  balance  of  the  money,  which  ought  to  be  but  is  not 
there. 

Our  currency  ' 'system'7  being  absolutely  rigid 
(the  banks  having  prohibited  the  government  from  in- 
terfering with  their  "  trade  "  by  furnishing  a  means  for 
exchange),  the  demand  can  not  be  met  and  "Panic" 
and  DISASTEE  ensue. 

The  banks  which  have  been  backing  the  stock  and 
produce  exchanges  and  other  gambling  houses  ruin 
the  gamblers  by  selling  the  "readily-convertible" 
"collateral  securities"  which  on  account  of  the  very 
dangerous  nature  of  the  trade  they  have  demanded, 
for  whatever  price  they  will  bring,  which  serves  only 
to  heighten  the  fears  of  those  who  see  "gilt-edged" 
"securities"  being  sacrificed. 

What  happens  to  the  legitimate  users  of  money 
at  these  times  —  to  the  man  who  has  liquidated  or  who 
needs  to  liquidate  temporarily,  part  of  his  accumu- 
lated wealth? 

His  " credit"  is  as  good  as  ever,  perhaps  better 
than  ever  —  he  is  entitled  to  a  means  for  exchange. 
Does  he  get  it?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  This  government  pro- 
tects none  who  have  made  the  unfortunate  mistake  of 
putting  labor  into  permanent  form.  He  is  "squeezed" 
to  "the  limit",  and  is  lucky  indeed  if  he  be  not  sacri- 
ficed outright  with  the  gamblers. 


32 

It  is  the  DUTY  of  our  government,  no  matter 
what  unfaithful  representatives  may  say  to  the  con- 
trary, to  protect  "Accumulated  Wealth",  which  is 
nothing  but  the  product  of  labor  in  it's  most  enduring 
form,  and  any  class  which  for  purely  selfish  ends,  de- 
feats justice  by  witholding  the  government  from  the 
performance  of  its  duty,  becomes  entirely  responsible 
for  the  consequences  and  will  surely  answer  in  time  to 
the  people  therefor. 

There  are  other  forms  of  wealth  than  gold,  which 
is  but  one  of  our  minor  products,  and  a  not  indis- 
pensable one  at  that,  and  the  people  are  even  now  seek- 
ing a  way  to  prevent  it's  continued  concentration  into 
the  hands  of  a  few. 


*##***#*** 


The  changes  in  man's  body  and  animal  nature 
are  slow  and  hard  to  be  perceived,  but  we  can  easily 
see,  any  time  we  stop  to  look,  that  he  has  developed 
more  in  his  understanding  in  the  last  generation  alone 
than  in  all  previous  ones  put  together,  and  that  he  is 
progressing  today  faster  than  ever. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  look  back  upon  even 
medieval  times  to  realize  this ;  — 

I  myself  have  been  caught  abroad  in  a  Spanish 
American  Capital  as  the  host  was  carried  by  —  Mary 
in  the  latest  dress  from  Paris  and  Joseph  in  a  fine 
top-hat  —  and  have  gone  down  on  my  knees  with  the 


33 

• 
rest  of  them,  in  the  rock-paved  streets,  to  avoid  being 

stoned  to  death. 

I  have  witnessed  scenes  on  Feast  Days  that 
would  fit  any  feast  described  in  the  dictionaries  of  the 
bible. 

It  is  no  effort  for  me  to  recall  the  time  when  wo- 
man waited  on  her  master  at  table,  taking  her  own 
meal  in  snatches  or  afterwards  with  the  children  and 
servants ; 

When  shoes  could  be  worn  without  disgrace  only 
by  those  who  were  known  to  have  the  money  to  pay  for 
the  luxury; 

When  "  coal-oil "  lamps  had  not  come  in,  and 
people  went  to  bed  with  the  sun ;  when  the  streets  were 
unlighted  save  for  the  lantern  of  the  watchman  on  the 
corner  who  sleepily  called-out  the  hours  of  the  night ; 

When  if  urgency  caused  one  to  be  so  discourteous 
as  to  call  upon  anyone  before  retiring  one's-self,  one 
would,  after  a  vigorous  and  lengthy  use  of  the  huge 
iron  knocker  on  the  heavily-barred  and  only  entrance 
door,  have  the  grated  wicket  thereof  opened,  and  if 
one's  errand  were  thought  of  import  one  might  be 
received  within  by  the  gentleman  of  the  house,  in  shirt 
and  cap  and  tallow-dip  in  hand. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  refer  to  the  "  savages " 
whom  we  have  not  yet  exterminated  —  Many  people 
were  primitive  until  most  recently,  and  the  most  nu- 


34 

• 

merous  race  on  earth  is  quite  primitive  still  —  And  the 
customs  of  these  peoples  were  and  are  yet,  in  many 
respects,  just  as  they  were  in  the  time  of  Christ. 

I  remember  cattle  being  paid  for  by  the  drop- 
ping of  gold  coins  into  a  hat  as  they  were  driven  by. 

In  my  time  the  Dons  would  give  sixteen-dollar 
gold  onzas  for  fourteen  dollars  in  small  silver  so  that 
they  might  pay  the  laborers  in  their  fields,  whose  daily 
wage  at  the  time  was  a  silver  real,  worth  12%  cents 
in  their  money,  and  that  of  their  wives  and  children 
far  less. 

Coin  was  buried  in  the  ground  there  then,  when 
not  out  at  interest,  and  it  was  far  safer  there  than  it 
has  sometimes  been  since  in  the  banks,  for  "the  gov- 
ernment" had  a  way  when  he  discovered  that  a  man 
had  laid  aside  too  much  above  taxes  and  living  —  (and 
he  easily  finds  out  how  bank-accounts  stand) — of 
"borrowing  it"  from  him. 

But  the  laborer  did  not  work  every  day  in  the 
week  or  so  long  then  as  now.  Though  compelled,  not  by 
nature  but  by  man,  to  work  for  others,  he  was  allowed 
to  work  also  for  himself,  and  given  ample  time  for 
play.  He  had  not  then  been  compelled  to  work  all 
the  time  for  the  sole  benefit  of  others. 

His  wages  have  been  raised,  time  and  time  again, 
until  now  he  gets  a  nominal  wage  which  would  have 
supported  a  country  gentleman  then  —  but  he  gets  no 


35 

more  if  as  much  to  eat,  no  more  nor  as  good  clothing, 
and  has  been  robbed  of  the  greater  part  of  his  time. 

He  has  been  deceived,  just  as  the  "  intelligent " 
American  laborer,  be  he  hod-carrier,  factory  or  rail- 
road employee  or  sweat-shop  slave,  has  been  de- 
ceived —  For  what  matters  it  what  wage  they  give  if 
they  raise  the  price  of  living  faster  still? 

It  is  the  constantly  increasing  cost  of  living  that 
the  people  should  investigate  —  the  reasons  why,  that 
labor  as  they  will,  some  of  them  find  it  so  hard  to 
keep  body  and  soul  together. 

We  are  all  aware  that  the  entire  wealth  of  the 
country  is  being  concentrated  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
—  Is  it  not  high  time  that  we  investigated  and  tried  to 
stop  the  many  different  ways  in  which  it  is  done? 

The  Japanese  paid  fabulous  prices  for  rabbits, 
pigs  and  other  animals  when  our  vessels  first  began  to 
reach  their  ports,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  buyers 
bred  them  and  * '  realized ' '  somewhat  before  the  foreign 
supply  exceeded  the  home  demand. 

Sycee  silver  and  Mexican  dollars,  both  stamped 
and  restamped  with  the  chop  of  the  different  mercantile 
houses  through  whose  hands  they  go,  until  only  Chinese 
contadores  can  knowingly  handle  them,  still  pass  in 
exchange  in  the  interior  of  China,  where  gold  would 
be  quite  useless. 

I  have  seen  a  Tartar  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama 
give  more  of  his  wares  for  the  imposing  Jamaica 


36 

penny  than  he  would  for  an  American  silver  quarter 
dollar,  and  try  as  I  would,  I  could  not  enlighten  him 
before  he  lost  his  entire  stock  in  trade. 

And  yet,  had  that  unsophisticated  Tartar  been 
possessed  of  the  means  to  return  to  his  home,  where 
others  of  his  kind  might  have  in  turn  received  those 
pennies  from  him  in  exchange  for  as  much  or  more 
than  he  gave  for  them,  there  would  have  been  nothing 
pitiable  in  the  transactions. 

Ignorance  is  a  mighty  factor  in  exchange  —  just 
as  weighty  as  knowledge. 

Without  ignorance  on  our  part,  and  the  tacit 
connivance  of  our  government,  false  and  adulterated 
foods,  drinks  and  drugs  could  not  be  sold  to  us  here  at 
home  in  such  a  perfectly  " legal"  manner. 

Our  wholesome  food  and  drink  we  send  abroad  to 
lands  where  government  will  not  permit  the  people 
to  be  swindled,  but  that  we  import  in  exchange  is 
marked  "for  export",  meaning  that  much  of  it  is  not 
fit  nor  permitted  to  be  sold  for  consumption  where 
manufactured ; 

So  let  us  not  despise  the  Tartar. 

In  slavery  days  we  were  at  least  honest  in  rob- 
bing the  black  openly  of  the  product  of  his  labor  —  but 
progressing  greatly  in  intelligent  trickery  since  those 
times,  and  with  the  highly-paid  aid  of  those  who  study 
the  "law"  for  the  purpose  of  circumventing  or  defeat- 
ing it,  we  no  longer  steal  openly  but  in  the  dark. 


37 

finding  that  in  this  way  we  can  rob  black  and  white 
alike  with  impunity  —  And  the  industrial  slavery  of 
today  is  perhaps  even  more  severe  than  the  human 
slavery  of  our  last  generation. 

Now  let  me  close  this   digression  by  stating 
that;  — 

Mother  sits  now  at  the  table, 

Everybody's  wearing  shoes; 
Father  flies  about  in  autos, 

And  they've  changed  their  Constituge. 

Japs  no  longer  buy  our  rabbits, 

China's  Sycee's  got  to  go; 
No  Persian  owns  the  Telegraph, 

Or  the  Posts  in  Jericho. 

We  look  down  upon  these  others, 

Burying  deep  our  heads  in  sand ; 
But  we're  mentally  the  rear-guard, 

While  our  Brothers  lead  the  Band. 

I  am  not  a  writer,  still  less  a  man  of  parts,  so  I 
will  not  apologize  for  the  doggerel  by  which  I  attempt 
to  illustrate  change  by  focusing  it's  contrasts.  —  Man 
is  developing  very  rapidly  —  it  has  begun  to  be  notice- 
able, even  among  ourselves. 

But,  to  get  back  to  Finance ;  — 

The  old  Mexican  dollars  contained  more  silver 
than  our  own  dollar,  and  used  to  be  worth  in  China  and 


38 

Japan,  if  I  remember  arightly,  from  5%  to  12%  more 
than  even  our  gold  dollars,  which  last  were  6%  under 
the  Mexican  silver  dollars  even  in  California,  so  that 
in  our  early  trade  with  the  East,  the  bills  of  lading 
of  American  bottoms  called  for  Mexican  instead  of 
American  currency. 

The  East  found  silver  more  useful  than  gold  as  a 
medium  for  exchange,  and  indeed  there  are  many 
places  in  the  interior  of  China  today  where  the  "  com- 
mon people ' '  use  nothing  but  copper. 

We  sought  to  overcome  the  disadvantage  by 
creating  and  coining  a  silver  "Trade-Dollar"  for 
special  use  in  the  trade  with  the  East,  and  we  put  as 
much  silver  in  it  as  was  contained  in  the  Mexican  dol- 
lar and  more  than  was  contained  in  the  dollar  which 
we  continued  to  use  at  home ;  — 

But  it  did  not  "go"  —  the  Japanese  and  Chinese 
had  become  accustomed  to  considering  the  "Mexs" 
a  superior  dollar,  so  our  "  Trade-Dollar "  had  to  be 
called  in  and  reduced  again  to  bullion. 

Our  delay  in  establishing  the  parity  had  cost  us 
the  Eastern  market  for  the  surplus  product  of  our 
silver  mines  in  coined  form,  and  as  just  about  this 
time  the  Powers,  who  were  not  interested  as  much  as 
we  were  in  silver  mines,  began  to  follow  England's 
prior  lead  in  demonetizing  that  metal,  we  were  con- 
fronted with  the  necessity  of  consuming  too  great  a 
part  ourselves ;  — 


39 

Thus  the  cumbrousness  of  silver  as  a  means  for 
exchange  for  an  advancing  people  became  too  ap- 
parent, and  we  felt  compelled  to  follow  suit  and 
demonetize  it  ourselves  —  It  reverted  to  it's  primeval 
uses  in  so  far  as  we  were  concerned. 

The  selfishness  of  the  banking-class,  who  per- 
ceived that  they  could  not  easily  corner  it,  was  doubt- 
lessly the  immediate  cause  of  it's  demonetization,  but 
it  was  bound  to  be  demonetized  by  us  sooner  or  later, 
as  it  must  be,  in  time,  even  by  the  "Silver  Countries." 

Now,  when  silver  was  demonetized,  we  were 
given  nothing  in  it's  place,  making  greater  room  for 
gold,  the  production  of  which  has  increased  by  leaps 
and  bounds  in  the  very  states  where  silver-mining  was 
formerly  the  main  industry. 

But  there  is  not  likely  to  be  too  much  gold  until 
it's  cost  of  production  still  further  decreases,  for  the 
majority  of  us  are  informed,  and  believe,  that  "more 
gold  has  gone  into  the  ground  than  has  ever  come 
out." 

The  as  yet  not  clearly  visible  fact  is  that  the  pro- 
duction of  gold  involves  a  quite  unnecessary  loss  of 
labor,  but  of  this  more  anon. 

People  are  beginning  to  be  told  that ' '  there  is  too 
much  gold"  and  that  it  is  constantly  "shrinking"  (as 
if  a  "Standard"  could  ever  shrink)  in  value,  owing 
to  "over-production",  and  that  it's  "purchasing- 
power"  is  "not  what  it  was." 


40 

.  How  do  those  who  advance  this  fallacious  argu- 
ment explain  the  panics  which  occur  periodically  owing 
to  the  •" shortage  of  money",  which  " shortage"  may 
be  artificially  occasioned  at  any  time  and  in  more  than 
one  way? 

Three  men  caused  a  terrible  shortage  in  the  last 
generation  —  One  man  can  do  so  today  whenever  he 
will. 

Does  ' l  over-production ' '  make  shortage  ?  Or  is  it 
that  they  fear  that  production  may  overtake  shortage? 

If  the  Class  which  so  argues  would  come  out 
frankly  and  tell  us  that  they  propose  to  demonetize 
gold,  as  they  did  silver,  the  people  would  begin  to  see 
the  light  which  no  thinking  man  can  doubt  has  already 
been  quite  clearly  perceived  by  the  Class  —  It  would 
be  an  immense  step  forward. 

But  "Big  Business"  never  takes  a  step  until  it 
has  first  quietly  paved  the  way  —  And  this  they  have 
already  started  to  do ;  — 

They  are  even  now  preparing  to  pass  through 
Congress  an  Act  for  another  United  States  Bankr 
though  they  modestly  call  it  in  their  propaganda,  a 
"Central  Bank",  which  they  propose  to  control 
privately,  and  which  will  place  all  the  financial  power 
of  the  government  behind  them,  and  secure  to  them 
the  special  privilege  of  alone  handling  the  assets  on 
which  the  future  currency  of  this  nation  has  already 
begun  to  be  based. 


41 
i\ 

This  special  privilege  once  secured,  they  will, 

after  a  safe  interval,  be  the  first  to  assure  the  people  of 
the  benefits  to  be  secured  by  the  DEMONETIZATION 
OF  GOLD. 

For  we  are  today  going  back  to  the  ancient  cus- 
tom of  employing  gold  as  gold  in  exchange,  but  in  the 
form  of  bars  of  bullion  instead  of  coin  or  dust,  and  we 
are  destined  to  degrade  it  further  still,  just  as  we  did 
silver,  to  it's  primeval  and  only  apparent  real  use,  in 
the  Arts. 

The  sooner  gold  is  demonetized  the  better  for  the 
people,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  may  be  accom- 
plished without  parting  with  our  birth-right. 

A  few  more  words  on  gold ; — 

Gold,  not  long  since,  was  made  the  SOLE 
"  Standard "  by  which  all  worths  or  values  should  be 
measured. 

Now,  in  the  Bureau  of  Standards  here  at  Wash- 
ington there  is  a  " Yard-Stick",  which  was  pains- 
takingly made  and  which  is  most  carefully  guarded 
both  from  man  and  Nature. 

It  is  a  duplicate  made  from  the  original '  *  Stand- 
ard" erected  by  the  English  (in  1120,  after  the  length 
of  the  arm  of  Henry  1),*  who,  losing  their's  by  fire, 
made  in  turn  a  replica  of  our's. 

They  made  no  replica  from  any  of  the  number- 
less copies  of  their  own  original,  for  none  had  been  con- 


*  Francis  E.  Leupp,  in  Scribner's  Magazine,  Oct  /10. 


42 

structed  with  sufficient  pains,  or  sufficiently  guarded, 
to  be  thought  worthy. 

This  Yard-Stick—  this  "standard"  measure  of 
extension  of  our's  is  protected  against  climatic  influ- 
ences, so  far  as  man  is  capable,  in  the  endeavor  to  ap- 
proach FIXITY  —  and  all  other  yard-sticks  must  cor- 
respond thereto  to  be  "legally"  correct. 


Now  though  the  Class  frequently  "fixes"  the 
"purchasing-power"  of  gold,  it  does  not  do  so  in  ex- 
actly the  sense  we  have  in  mind,  and  in  fact  it  is  not 
upon  our  sense  but  upon  our  lack  of  sense  that  they 
count  whenever  they  prepare  to  "fix"  us. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  purchasing  or  exchange 
power  of  gold  never  has  been  stable  and  never  can 
be  —  It  fluctuates  constantly  and  there  is  nothing 
fixed  about  it,  hence  it  is  not  "Standard"  —  no,  not 
even  in  it  's  fineness. 

If  this  were  not  so,  gold  would  not  be  bought 
and  sold  as  a  commodity,  as  it  frequently  is,  for  the 
idea  of  speculating  for  a  rise  or  fall  in  price  of  any- 
thing, the  value  of  which  is  fixed,  is  ridiculous. 

It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  "standard"  measure 
of  value,  as  the  exchange  worth  of  all  things  is  regu- 
lated entirely  by  the  supply  thereof  and  the  demand 
therefor,  which  in  turn  depend  absolutely  upon  that 
tremendous  but  non-measurable  entity  —  Mind. 

Men,  through  special  privilege  and  monopoly, 
have  interfered  with  the  freedom  of  supply,  and 


43 
*> 

through  misrepresentative  advertisement  often  create 
an  artificial  and  sometimes  harmful  demand,  but  these 
are  matters  for  penal  legislation  and  need  not  be  dis- 
cussed here. 

Now  the  mind  is  just  as  gregarious  in  it's 
habits  as  it's  more  visible  earthly  animal  comple- 
ment ;  — 

Minds  herd  together  in  groups,  each  with  it's 
own  thought-receiver  —  And  occasionally  some  great,, 
lone,  original  thinker  will  appear  and  force  the  groups- 
into  larger  herds ;  — 

And  then  again  some  fool,  who  does  not  think 
at  all,  will  stampede  the  whole  herd  to  it's  partial  de- 
struction, despite  the  bellowing  of  all  leaders. 

This  is  the  reason  we  have  had  crazes  about 
Tulips,  Mississippi  Bubbles,  and  South  Sea  Bubbles, 
and  are  still  chasing  after  the  gaudy-hued  soap  bub- 
bles which  they  continue  to  blow  for  us  on  Wall  Street. 

This  is  the  reason  farmers  all  plant  the  same 
crops  at  the  same  time,  and  apples  are  so  high-priced 
today  —  simply  because  we  follow  the  other  fellow's, 
lead  instead  of  thinking  for  ourselves. 

We  send  people  to  Congress  to  relieve  us  of  the 
trouble  of  thinking,  and  Congress  has  given  us  a  fifty- 
year  object-lesson  of  the  folly  of  this  habit,  which  we 
are  now  awakening  to  and  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  may 
be  so  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  the  unborn  genera- 


44 

tion  (beings  once  born  seldom  profit  by  example)  that 
they  may  avoid  the  pitfalls  of  their  fathers. 

But  the  most  general,  and  by  far  the  craziest 
craze  of  all,  is  the  White  Man's  love  for  gold,  the 
clearest  light  on  which  is  thrown  by  what  happened 
to  the  Aztecs  and  the  Incas,  who  upon  first  meeting 
the  savage  animals  which  subsequently  exterminated 
them,  were  first  astonished  and  then  disgusted  by 
their,  to  them,  incomprehensible  lust  for  gold. 

Those  peoples  had  not  lost  their  proper  appre- 
ciation of  gold  as  a  pretty  metal,  suitable  for  orna- 
mental purposes,  but  gold  in  no  way  affected  their 
living,  and  they  were  far  more  thoughtful,  provident 
and  democratic  in  their  ways  than  the  White  Man  has 
yet  learned  to  be,  as  witness  their  public  granaries. 

Nowadays  we  put  those  who  do  not  think  as  we 
do  in  Asylums,  but  those  who  are  really  the  most  dan- 
gerous to  Society  we  leave  at  large. 

There  was  a  time,  before  the  craze,  when  we 
also  wanted  gold  and  silver  only  for  themselves,  but 
those  now  most  advanced  no  longer  require  either, 
either  for  adornment  or  utensils. 

But  races  learn  slowly,  and  as  it  took  many  a 
century  before  silver  and  gold  became  so  generally 
prized  as  to  be  used  for  a  means  for  exchange,  so  it 
may  take  some  time  yet,  though  not  so  long,  before 
the  people  realize  that  the  general  demand,  which 
alone  gave  them  their  value,  ceased  some  time  since 
with  our  savagery. 


45 

It  is  a  waste  of  labor,  which  might  be  much 
more  profitably  engaged  otherwise,  to  continue  to  em- 
ploy it  in  the  production  of  gold,  as  we  cannot,  for 
lack  of  early  record,  foresee  the  extent  of  the  flood  of 
this  metal  which,  in  coined  and  other  forms,  will  pour 
in  upon  us  when  the  burial-pots  of  India  and  else- 
where are  dug  up,  as  they  surely  will  be,  the  moment 
their  owners  begin  to  realize,  as  we  are  now  begin- 
ning to  realize,  that  that  which  they  had  thought  was 
to  be  prized  of  all  men  forever  is  not  the  true  God  but 
only  another  molten  image  —  the  metal  which  can  be 
the  most  easily  spared. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  although  we  all 
have  a  general  idea  about  what  "  money "  ought  to  be, 
we  have  had  little  to  say  about  it.  Nor  must  we  for- 
get that  the  "  orthodox "  doctrine  is  that  of  the  non- 
producing  class,  who  have  made  their  teaching  "  ortho- 
dox "  through  misrepresentation  and  force. 

The  people  were  persuaded  at  the  time  of  our 
civil  war,  that  the  paper  currency  issued  by  our  gov- 
ernment was  worthless,  because  forsooth  it  had  no 
gold  behind  it. 

Now  gold,  being  the  form  in  which  it  was  for- 
merly the  custom  to  store-up  our  surplus  products, 
we  naturally,  after  four  years  of  the  most  destructive 
war  of  record,  consumed  the  surplus  stored,  and  the 
only  way  we  could  get  any  more  was  to  again  go  about 
it  as  we  had  in  colonial  days,  when  coin  of  any  kind 
was  seldom  seen,  i.  e.,  to  go  to  work  again  and  produce 


46 

more  of  the  necessaries  of  life  than  we  required  for 
ourselves ;  and  this  is  just  what  we  did  do  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  when  Labor  was  restored  to  it's  proper 
fields. 

But  meanwhile  the  government  had  been  com- 
pelled to  issue  treasury-notes  to  pay  it's  expenses 
with  (having  borrowed  all  the  gold  it  could  on 
bonds)  and  made  the  mistake  of  being  itself  the  first 
to  refuse  them,  by  demanding  gold  in  payment  of  the 
heavy  import  duties  it  had  imposed  as  a  war-measure, 
which  caused  it's  notes  to  fall  into  such  immediate  dis- 
favor that  no  one  would  receive  them  at  face-value; 
and  they  came  to  be  known,  on  account  of  their  color, 
under  the  then  odious  name  of  "greenbacks." 

They  fell  as  low  as  40c.  on  the  dollar  and  were 
-quietly  bought-up  by  foreign  bankers  whose  vision 
was  not  jaundiced  by  their  color,  who  clearly  per- 
ceived that  though  different  in  form  they  were  just  as 
binding  on  the  property  of  every  man  in  the  country 
us  any  bond-issue  of  the  government,  and  who  realized 
that  debts  are  not  paid  with  gold  but  by  the  surplus 
produce  which  alone  gold  represents ;  — 

The  government  has  since  taken-up  a  few  of 
them  but  the  bulk*  have  been  allowed  to  remain  in 
circulation  owing  to  the  need  for  " currency"  —  in 

*The  Statistical  Abstract  for  1909,  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor,  page  603,  gives  the  "United  States  notes"  in  existence  as 
$346,681 ,016.00,  all  but  six  and  one-half  millions  of  which  are  in  circula- 
tion. 


47 

other  words,  they  were  and  are  required  as  a  means  for 
exchange. 

Stopping  to  think  how  unjust  many  of  the  prin- 
cipal things  which  are  "legal"  are,  and  of  the  posi- 
tively crooked  manner  in  which  our  "laws"  are  made, 
I  hope  I  may  not  be  misunderstood  when  I  say  that  the 
people  were  swindled  when  someone  persuaded  their 
government  to  refuse  to  receive  it's  own  notes;- 

In  times  of  war  we  look  for  brainy  men  to  serve 
us,  and  no  man  of  brains  could  have  failed  to  foresee 
what  happened  to  the  "greenbacks"  when  the  govern- 
ment acted  as  it  did.  The  people  lost  a  very  large  sum 
of  money  —  and  there  can  be  no  loss  of  this  kind  with- 
out someone's  gain. 


Even  so  learned  a  man  as  the  late  Goldwin 
Smith  thought  that  the  proper  business  of  the  govern- 
ment was  only  to  stamp  the  coin,  and  that  it  had  no 
concern  in  the  banking  "trade"  (sic),  and  was  not  en- 
titled to  the  profits  on  the  paper  it  allowed  to  circu- 
late ;  — 

s 

He  had  absolutely  no  vision  of  the  duty  of  the 
government  to  see  fair-play  among  it's  people  in  the 
matter  of  exchange. 

Now  one  of  the  objects  the  government  had  in 
view  in  reserving  to  itself  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
stamping  the  coin,  was  to  guarantee  that  it  contained 


48 

a  given  number  of  grains  of  metal  of  a  certain  degree 
of  fineness,  thereby  greatly  facilitating  trade  by  elim- 
inating the  necessity  which  had  previously  existed,  of 
constant  testing  and  weighing. 

This  was  a  great  step  in  advance  —  but  it  was 
only  a  step.  Still  it  was  the  only  step  that  could  be 
taken  at  tjie  time,  for  even  where  government  has 
accidentally  been  in  advance  of  the  people,  which  our 
government  never  has  been,  it  must  always  wait  for 
the  understanding  of  the  people  to  ripen  before  it  can 
hope  to  accomplish  anything. 

All  peoples  know  that  it  is  their  province  to 
labor  and  produce,  but  the  peoples  until  now  have  had 
so  little  to  do  with  their  government,  that  none  have 
dared  suggest  that  the  government  itself  furnish  the 
means  for  exchange  and  see  that  all  are  provided  there- 
with so  that  no  man  may  be  robbed  of  part  of  that 
which  by  his  labor  he  may  produce. 

Coinage  was  made  a  government  monopoly,  not 
for  gain  (though  unwise  governments  have  temporar- 
ily profited  thereby)  but  of  general  necessity,  and  the 
confidence  thus  established  is  carefully  preserved  by 
calling  in  the  coin  when  it's  abrasion  from  use  threat- 
ens to  become  a  matter  of  import. 

It  should  be  remarked  here  however,  in  paren- 
thesis, that  during  our  civil  war,  our  government,  not 
satisfied  with  discrediting  it's  notes,  discredited  it's 
seal  also,  for  it  received  it 'sown  coins  not  by  tale  but  by 
weight,  seeking  to  throw  any  loss  from  abrasion  on  the 


49 

temporary  holder,  and  special  scales  for  the  purpose 
were  furnished  to  all  custom  houses. 

The  government  continues  to  receive  gold  from 
individuals  as  formerly,  but  nowadays  the  individual 
seldom  asks  the  government  to  stamp  it  into  coin,  but 
prefers,  in  lieu  thereof,  a  warehouse-receipt,  in  the 
form  of  a  government  note,  which  the  government 
gives  him,  keeping  the  metal  in  it's  vaults  in  bullion 
form  until  coin  is  asked  for  —  for  gold-bullion  is  com- 
ing to  be  used  more  and  more  for  government  and  bank 
reserves  and  for  shipment  in  settlement  of  balances  of 
trade. 

Gold  has  already  fallen  to  be  a  security  and  is 
doomed  to  fall  again  and  become,  like  silver,  a  mere 
commodity. 

Having  disposed  of  the  metals  on  which  our  cur- 
rency is  based,  let  us  pass  to  the  consideration  of  our 
system  of  handling  this  "  currency. " 

Banks,  or  money-distributing  centers,  are  of 
very  modern  development  (16th  century),*  and  might 
be  likened  (in  their  ideal  functions)  to  the  Heart, 
which  must  constantly  pump-out  the  blood  which  as 
constantly  flows  to  it. 

This  keeping  of  the  blood  in  circulation  is  a 
function  only  —  for  the  heart  does  not  create  the  blood, 
nor  should  it  grow  fat  on  it  at  the  expense  of  other 
members  of  the  body  —  for  the  blood  is  the  life  of  the 
body. 

*The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  calls  the  Banco  di  Rialto,  established 
by  the  acts  of  the  Venetian  senate  of  1584  and  3587,  the  first  public  bank 
in  that  city  and  in  Europe. 


50 

So  if  we  are  to  avoid  the  starvation  of  and  death 
of  the  body,  we  must  prevent  fatty  degeneration  of  the 
heart. 

Banks  were  organized  at  first  to  serve  their 
patrons  —  for  a  consideration,  for  all  service  should 
be  rewarded; 

But  they  have  so  degenerated  that  they  now 
exist  for  the  sole  purpose  of  having  their  patrons  serve 
them. 

The  best  way  to  get  credit  at  a  bank  nowadays 
is  to  first  borrow  or  steal  enough  to  buy  the  controlling 
interest  in  it's  stock,  after  which  you  can  help  yourself 
to  it's  deposits  and  repay  your  loans  or  thefts  or  buy 
still  other  banks  if  you  intend  to  "  operate "  on  a  large 
scale. 

It  is  true  that  the  "  Credits "  which  you  thus 
get  away  with  do  not  belong  to  the  bank  or  banks,  but 
to  their  depositors,  but  this  is  a  mere  detail  and  if  you 
are  a  good  "  operator "  will  not  be  found  out,  for  the 
interests  of  the  depositors  or  even  of  the  other  stock- 
holders do  not  count  for  much  once  you  control. 

Most  large  public  deposits  of  moneys  are  used 
in  this  way,  whether  in  banks  or  insurance  compa- 
nies —  the  men  with  the  controlling-interest  in  the 
stock  make  the  profits  —  the  loss,  if  they  be  so  unfor- 
tunate, is  invariably  suffered  by  the  depositors  or 
premium-payers. 


51 

Only  it  is  no  longer  as  safe  as  formerly  to  rob 
them  of  their  principal  else  you  may  not  be  allowed  to 
" operate "  long.  But  the  "commissions"  and  other 
"  rake-off s"  are  sufficient  to  satisfy  any  really  con- 
servative "operator." 

If  you  are  not  lucky  enough  to  get  into  an  '  '  un- 
limited game",  you  can  buy  a  savings  bank,  but  the 
profits  here  are  not  so  great  because  their  former 
misappropriations  were  so  outrageous  that  our  not 
over- sensitive  government  felt  compelled  to  apply 
special  "laws"  to  them,  limiting  their  investments; 

But  even  with  this  restriction,  the  business  of 
employing  other  people's  money  for  one's  own  uses 
seems  still  pretty  good,  as  witness  the  assault  on  the 
Postal  Savings  Bank  Bill. 

Why  should  banks  and  other  moneyed-institu- 
tions absorb  all  the  profits  on  paper  issues,  commis- 
sions, discounts,  interest,  fees  and  imposition  of  all 
kinds  ? 

Have  we  no  right  to  share  in  the  profits  on  the 
moneys  which  we  ourselves  provide? 

This  matter  is  even  more  important  than  the 
Tariff  question  which  now  agitates  us,  for  this  indirect 
and  unsuspected  tax  —  for  Tax  it  is  —  if  collected  by 
the  government  itself,  as  it  should  be,  instead  of  being 
abandoned  or  worse  to  special  interest,  would  equalize 
our  burdens  to  a  very  great  extent ; 


52 

For  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  the  fifteen  bil- 
lions and  over*  of  dollars,  principally  in  credits,  with 
which  the  people  have  supplied  the  banks,  earn  quite 
enough  to  provide  for  the  army  and  navy  (which  when 
we  are  more  enlightened  economically  we  will  not 
stand  for  at  allf)  and  the  pension  list  (which,  after  the 
many  frauds  are  eliminated  is  quite  a  proper  institu- 
tion though  it  will  be  out  of  date  in  another  genera- 
tion) —  in  fact  it  will  more  than  cover  the  entire  sup- 
posedly necessary  expenses  of  the  federal  govern- 
ment, seventy-two  per  cent  of  whose  total  income  goes 
at  present,  to  the  expense  of  wars,  past  or  future.t 

Then  again,  if  the  government  entered  the 
banking  business  —  made  the  people's  business  it's 
business  —  if  it  could  be  brought  to  realize  it's  duty 
to  provide  a  means  for  honest  exchange,  just  as  it  has 
been  compelled  to  guarantee  the  contents  of  a  coin,  it 
need  not  trade  on  the  necessities  of  the  people,  con- 
stantly seeking  to  get  the  better  of  them,  but  by  enab- 
ling each  of  it's  subjects  (we  are  far  from  being  free- 
men) to  get  his  full  due,  would  put  them  in  a  position 
to  cheerfully  pay  their  share  of  the  expense  of  gov- 
erning a  great  nation. 

*  Report  of  the  Controller  of  the  Currency,  1910,  Document  No.  2589, 
p.  65 — Insurance  Companies  not  included. 

f  I  was  present  at  a  banquet  of  a  Military  Order  when  one  of  the  first 
speakers,  the  late  Justice  Brewer  of  the  Supreme  Court,  endeavored  to 
enlighten  the  veteran  fighters  present  by  giving  them  his  ideas  about  a 
great  Navy.  Not  a  man  in  the  hall  seemed  to  understand  his  advanced 
views,  and  I  myself  have  since  rejoiced  that  I  was  not  among  the  large 
number  who  none  too  covertly  hissed  their  distinguished  guest. 

JSan  Francisco  Argonaut,  Jan'y/21/11 — Unconfirmed. 


53 
^ 

The  Mass  is  paying  far  more  than  "it's  share  at 

present,  and  it  feels  and  knows  it,  and  is  trying  to  find 
out  how  the  burden  has  been  kept  on- them. 

And  furthermore,  if  the  people  had  their  money 
on  deposit  in  government  banks,  they  could  get  it 
when  they  wanted  it,  and  not  be  told,  as  they  are  now 
told  periodically;  —  "We  are  very  sorry,  but  having 
"  placed  your  money  out  to  earn  more  money,  not  for 
* l  you  but  for  ourselves,  we  cannot  let  you  have  it  just 
"  now  or  indeed  until  after  the  general  demand 
* '  ceases  —  no,  not  even  the  25c.  on  the  dollar  which 
46  the  'law'  is  supposed  to  allow  —  the  Governor  has 
"  suspended  the  'law'  for  us." 

There  are,  here  and  there,  exceptions  to  this 
rule,  but  few  know  how  to  avail  themselves  of  them. 
When  these  times  come  round  and  you  know  from  ex- 
perience or  hearsay  that  your  bank  will  refuse  to  give 
you  your  own  money,  never  ask  for  it  but  go  instead 
to  your  broker  and,  telling  him  you  know  when  to 
"throw  up  your  hands,"  state  just  how  badly  you 
want  your  money ; 

The  successful  broker  seldom  makes  mistakes 
and  if  your's  is  one  of  this  kind  and  sees  that  you 
really  want  the  money  bad  enough,  he  will  promise  to 
and  will  get  it  for  you  —  for  he  knows  exactly  what  it 
is  going  to  cost.  He  will  get  you  your  own  money,  a 
thing  quite  impossible  for  you  yourself  to  do ; 

And  when  he  goes  to  see  your  banker,  he  will 
not  tell  him  that  he  wants  your  money,  nor  ask  what 


54 

the  charge  will  be  —  he  would  be  thrown  out  of  the 
bank  if  he  did  —  but  will  go  in  to  pass  the  time  o '  day, 
and,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  remark  to  the 
banker  that  "a  client  of  his"  (names  are  never  men- 
tioned between  gentlemen)  has  made  such  a  bid  for 
money  and  he  wonders  where  he  can  get  it; 

And  if  he  knows  his  business  and  has  made  the 
proper  bid,  the  banker,  after  remarking  upon  the 
hardness  of  the  times,  will  remember  that  "a  friend 
of  his"  who  happens  to  have  a  little  money  on  the 
side,  has  left  an  order  for  bonds  or  something  else  at 
such  and  such  a  rate,  but  that  as  he  would  really  like 
to  enable  the  broker  to  oblige  a  client,  he  will  call  his 
friend's  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  offer  for  cur- 
rency will  yield  him  about  as  much  as  the  bonds  or 
other  things  at  price  ordered. 

If  your  broker  is  "a  live  one",  with  the  proper 
connections  at  the  bank,  you  always  get  the  money  — 
not  your  money  of  course,  but  the  money  of  "the 
friend"  of  the  banker. 

This  knowing  how  to  get  your  money  reminds 
me  of  the  lower  officials  and  other  unfortunate  serv- 
ants of  a  certain  country,  who  were  always  paid  in 
warrants  but  whose  warrants  were  never  paid  —  that 
is,  not  directly ; 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  a  man  of 
such  high  degree  that  he  never  saw  these  poor  people, 
and  when  they  called  at  his  offices  they  were  always 
told  that  the  treasury  was  empty,  and  would  they 


55 
ti 

please  take  the  trouble  to  come  another  day  —  to  be 
exact,  they  were  always  asked  to  call  " tomorrow"; 

After  the  poor  wretches  finally  exhausted  their 
credit  everywhere  —  it  usually  took  about  six  months, 
for  they  were  frugal  and  resisted  to  the  verge  of  star- 
vation —  they  cast  about  them  to  try  to  sell  their  war- 
rants, only  to  find  that  no  merchant  wanted  them  for 
they  would  have  been  quite  worthless  —  to  them ; 

How  the  first  one  found  the  right  place  I  never 
learned,  but  they  soon  got  to  know  that  there  was  one 
philanthropist  in  town  who  could  and  would  do  what 
no  one  else  could  or  would  —  a  broker  of  another  race 
and  nationality,  who  never  took  more  than  fifty  per 
cent  and  who  never  turned  anyone  away  who  was 
willing  to  pay  the  price. 

Curiously  enough,  the  back  door  of  the  broker's 
office  was  not  far  from  the  back  door  of  the  treasury, 
and  as  the  broker  never  asked  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment to  help  him  collect  the  warrants  which  he  ap- 
peared to  so  philanthropically  continue  to  accumulate, 
it  must  be  presumed  that  he  was  successful  where  all 
others  failed. 

It  is  highly  important  in  life  to  have  "  proper 
connections. ' ' 

Now,  the  Governor  suspends  the  "law"  when- 
ever the  Class  in  whose  interests  it  was  enacted,  want 
it  suspended  —  And,  indeed,  it  must  be  suspended  — 
there  is  simply  nothing  else  to  do ! 


56 

For  instance,  when,  for  political  purposes,  the 
panic  of  1907  was  brought  about,  the  people  —  the 
workers  or  producers,  had  over  thirteen  billions  of 
dollars**  to  their  "credit"  (let  us  avoid  employing 
that  slippery  phrase  "on  deposit",  which  people  have 
found  so  deceptive)  in  the  "reporting  banks"  of  the 
country,  and  probably  a  couple  of  billions  more  in  the 
non-reporting  banks  and  Insurance  Companies,  all  but 
the  last  supposedly  subject  to  payment  in  gold  upon 
demand. 

Now  though  from  lack  of  early  record,  we  have 
no  idea  of  the  total  supply  of  gold*,  other  than  the  be- 
lief that  the  greater  part  has  been  reburied  in  the  Far 
East  and  other  places  where  despotic  rule  is  more  ap- 
parent than  at  home,  statistics  tell  us  that  the  entire 
visible  supply  available  to  modern  trade  and  com- 
merce today  is  less  than  eight  billion  dollars  t,  of 
which  we  had,  in  1907,  a  trifle  less  \  and  now  have  a 

**  Report  of  the  Controller  of  the  Currency,  1910,  Document  No.  2589, 
page  65. 

*  Statistical  abstracts  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  as 
yet  unpublished,  give  the  production  of  the  world  since  the  discovery  of 
America  in  1493,  to  1909,  as  :— 

Gold— Value $13,392,328,200.00 

Silver— Coining  value 13,488, 125,500.00 

t  World  Almanac  of  1911  to  Jan.  / 1  /09,  plus  accepted  estimates  of  pro- 
duction since. 

J  and  §  Statistical  Abstract  for  1909  of  the  Department  of  Commerce 
and  Labor,  p.  602,  quoting  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


57 

trifle  more  §  on  hand  than  one  billion  and  one-half  ||  - 
say  about  ten  cents  to  the  dollar  of  credit ; 

So  when  the  people,  becoming  panic-stricken,  as 
intended,  all  began  to  demand  their  money,  the  "law" 
had  to  be  suspended  for  the  simple  reason  that  pay- 
ment could  not  be  made ;  — 

Nor  was  payment  ever  intended  to  be  made! 

The  sooner  the  American  people  realize  that 
the  " credits "  which  they  continue  to  pile-up  (and  of 
which  they  are  largely  despoiled  from  time  to  time) 
can  never  be  paid,  —  the  sooner  they  realize  that  there 
is  not  gold  enough  in  the  world  to  do  so  —  the  better 
for  the  American  people. 

The  "Law",  when  not  suspended,  counts  upon 
their  not  wanting  their  money  all  at  once ; 

Also  —  they  never  deposited  those  fifteen  bil- 
lions of  "dollars"  -in  Gold.  What  they  did  do  was 
to  deposit  that  one  billion  and  one  half  a  little  more 
than  ten  times  over ;  — 


||  The  U.  S.  Treasury  Department's  Circular  No.  52, 
July  / 1  / 10,  p.  25,  gives  the  total  coinage  of  gold  by  the 
Mints  of  the  United  States,  from  1792  to  June/ 30/10,  as—  $3,149,207,670.50 
of  which  it  is  estimated  that  there  is  now  in  existence 

as  coin  in  the  United  States 1,531,074,997.00 

while  the  remainder 1,618,132,673.50 

is  represented  as  "an  excess  of  exports  over  imports  and  the  amount  con- 
sumed in  the  arts." 

The  best  and,  as  1  now  remember,  the  only  explanation  I  have  found 
anywhere  for  the  " excess  of  exports  over  imports"  of  gold,  is  in  the 
"Public",  of  Chicago,  Jan.  /  6  / 11,  a  paper  supported  mainly  by  the 
Joseph  Fels  fund,  where  a  very  strong  case  is  made  for  the  excess  of  out- 
go as  "tribute  to  absentee  landlords."  I  earnestly  recommend  this  virile 
little  weekly  to  those  who  may  object,  as  I  do,  to  having  their  news  sup- 
pressed. I  am  not  in  sympathy  with  some  of  its  views  but  it  does  have 
IDEAS  and  presents  them  in  an  unsensational  manner. 
5-G 


58 

And  their  "credit"  (do  not  forget  that  they 
had  been  doing  business  on  credit  and  necessarily 
were  paid  in  credit)  on  the  books  of  the  banks  and 
other  institutions,  if  these  had  been  honest,  should 
have  been ; 

Labor  —  nine-tenths;  Legal-tender  gold  —  one- 
tenth. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  my  argument  to  discuss 
here  the  many  forms  of  special  privilege  which  claim 
their  slices  of  the  nine- tenths  I  have  credited  to  Labor 
—  I  attempt  only  to  isolate  and  make  obvious  the  fact 
that  the  legal-tender  gold  credit  can  under  no  circum- 
stances be  more  than  one-tenth. 

But  the  banks,  who  admit  they  are  working  a 
system,  do  not  show  things  on  their  books  as  they 
really  are  (this  would  not  do  at  all  —  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  interest) ;  and  they  continue  to  uphold 
gold  as  the  sole  "legal"  tender,  though  they  know  that 
gold  barely  suffices  to  settle  the  mere  balances  of 
trade ; 

And  at  the  same  time,  they  pretend  that  gold  is 
being  "over-produced"  (unwittingly  admitting  it's 
unfitness,  though  on  wrong  grounds)  when  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it's  relative  production  has  so  fallen  behind 
the  enormous  increase  in  the  volume  of  trade,  that  it 
is  now  seldom  seen  at  all,  save  only  in  settlement  of 
balances  and  in  the  smallest  personal  transactions. 


59 

;f 

The  people  do  not  realize  that  the  volume  of 
trade  has  so  outgrown  the  gold-measure  that  it  has 
<jome  to  be  conducted  entirely  on  a  credit  basis,  and 
that  as  credit  is  controlled  absolutely  by  the  bankers, 
these  can  bring  business  to  a  stand-still  whenever  they 
will;  — 

And  they  do  so  will  whenever  they  find  a  plaus- 
ible excuse,  explaining  the  disturbance  as  the  "  natural 
result  of  unorthodox  politics "  or  as  a  "healthy  reac- 
tion after  inflation ",  the  "  inflation "  being  activity  on 
the  part  of  the  workers  and  the  "reaction"  being 
the  running  into  their  own  pockets  of  the  product  of 
the  activity  —  for  these  non-producers  must  live  (God 
alone  knows  why),  and  they  have  learned  to  spend 
money  in  many  more  ways  than  are  known  to  the  pro- 
ducer. 

The  Bankers  kill  credit  with  that  terrible 
weapon,  Gold,  which  they  carefully  keep  in  their  own 
hands  and  only  unsheathe  occasionally  when  they 
think  it  safe  to  gorge  instead  of  feed  —  then  only  is 
the  truly  terrible  nature  of  the  instrument  perceived 
—  it  is 'the  SOLE  "legal"  tender  ;- 

But  after  the  slaughter  is  over,  and  the  sheep 
wanted  have  been  killed,  the  weapon  is  sheathed  again 
and  the  remaining  sheep  forget  all  about  it  —  for  are 
they  not  Sheep. 

The  Bankers  make  a  "great  a  do"  during  a 
killing  or  panic  —  the  uninformed  might  think  they 
were  getting  hurt  themselves ;  and  they  sometimes  do 


60 

"get  away  with"  some  unpopular  or  too  competitive 
member  of  their  own  class  on  these  occasions,  the  ex- 
citement of  the  people  being  somewhat  assuaged  by 
the  act,  it  being  comforting  to  them  to  think  that  the 
poor  bankers  are  suffering  too. 

And  other  banks,  without  "proper  connec- 
tions "  (outside  the  ring),  are  occasionally  cornered 
with  the  animals  to  be  killed  and  get  "  stuck "  them- 
selves, but  this  is  incidental  and  does  not  occur  so 
often  now  as  formerly,  for  knowing  that  this  blood- 
letting, though  not  frequent,  is  none  the  less  a  regular 
occurrence,  they  have  learned,  when  they  see  the  ani- 
mals getting  too  fat,  to  drop  back  into  the  pasture, 
like  wise  ticks,  before  being  driven  with  them  to  the 
slaughter. 

No !,  No !,  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves  —  The 
Banks  know  "the  game",  which  is  not  a  losing  one  for 
them  or  they  would  not  remain  in  it ;  And  it  is  such  a 
good  game,  that  they  have  raised  the  limit  by  having 
"laws"  enacted  to  keep  the  little  fellows  out,  and  are 
forming  themselves  into  a  Trust. 


Truly,  Banking  is  a  "  Trade ' '  —  They  never 
buy  anything  —  they  merely  "trade"; 

Did  you  notice  the  most  "gilt-edged"  American 
stocks  being  advertised  in  1907  in  twenty  or  thirty 
different  places  in  the  same  papers,  and  day  after 
day?  They  were  offered  at  "bargain  prices." 


61 

If  the  banks  had  wanted  them  they  would  have 
not  been  advertised.  But  banks  do  not  buy  stocks  — 
their  controllers  manufacture  them  for  sale! 

When  the  Vanderbilts  sold-out  the  New  York 
Central  Eailway  they  demanded  cash  and  bonds; 
When  Carnegie  sold-out  to  the  Steel  Trust,  no  stocks 
for  him  but  Bonds,  and  /&rs£-mortgage  bonds  at  that 
—  No  second-mortgage  bonds  for  him  —  these  were 
for  public  consumption  only. 

Why!,  the  collective  presumption  of  the  entire 
Moneyed-Interests  was  not  sufficient  to  even  propose 
that  the  government,  which  they  have  elected  and  stick 
whenever  they  can,  should  lend  them  money  on  rail- 
road STOCKS !!!  — No !,  it  was  on  railroad  Bonds 
that  they  had  the  measure  passed,  though  these  alone 
are  known  to  cover  pretty  nearly  if  not  the  entire  cost 
of  the  properties. 

Why!,  banks  will  not  even  buy  bonds  unless 
they  can  "  underwrite "  an  entire  issue  at  a  sufficiently 
large  discount,  and  then  only  if  they  think  the  chances 
good  of  the  Public's  taking  them  off  their  hands. 

Banks  do  not  buy  —  They  are,  as  Goldwin 
Smith  says,  "Traders",  with  the  very  special  privi- 
lege of  trading  with  other  peoples'  money  and  taking 
"rake-offs"  both  ways,  which  it  is  thought  highly  im- 
proper for  any  one  else  to  do. 

Privileged  indeed!  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  what  the  real  returns  are  on  the  actual  cash 


62 

capitals  of  some  of  the  banks  of  New  York,  where  the 
out-shylocking-Shylock  "  call-loan "  rates  of  interest 
obtain  ? 

As  an  instance,  when  our  most  envied  banker- 
promoter,  seeing  that  the  political  panic  of  1907  had 
gone  farther  than  intended  and  was  getting  beyond 
control,  and  fearing  that  the  House  of  Stocks  would 
fall  about  their  ears,  borrowed  an  'admitted  twenty- 
five  millions  of  dollars  (some  think  it  was  many  times 
this  sum)  without  charge,  from  our  public  treasury 
(There  is  no  special  privilege  in  this  country,  Oh  no !), 
his  newspaper  minions  heralded  forth  paeons  of  praise 
of  him  as  the  Saviour  (God  save  the  mark)  of  the 
country,  stating  that  he  had  charged  third  parties  only 
ten  per  cent  (the  usury  "law"  fixing  the  limit  at  six) 
for  the  use  thereof,  though  why  he  should  have  been 
so  moderate  when  the  counter  "law"  safeguarding 
usurers  (and  the  federal  government  itself  for  that 
matter,  for  the  moneys  seem  to  have  been  handed  him 
without  restriction)  permitted  him  to  charge  anything 
he  pleased,  is  hard  to  understand. 

Eegular  "call"  or  gambler's  rates  being  at  the 
time  three  hundred  per  cent  and  over,  did  he  receive 
private  "commissions"  over  and  above  the  admitted 
ten  per  cent  which  our  so-called  public  press  did  not 
think  it  expedient  to  announce  I 

Still,  playing  Saviour  is  a  good  job  even  though 
one  retain  but  ten  per  cent  of  the  loaves  and  fishes. 


63 

What  is  not  easily  understood  however,  is  how 
it  came  to  pass  that  men  who  were  playing  with  thou- 
sands of  millions  should  have  been  so  hard-up  for  a 
paltry  twenty-five  million  —  Did  they  not  have  this 
much  ready  cash  themselves  somewhere  ?  Or  was  all 
their  own  money  safely  out  of  the  country  where  other 
despots  keep  their 's  ?  Or  had  it  been  merely  pru- 
dently transferred  to  the  vaults  of  the  safe-deposits 
under  the  guns  of  the  forts  at  Newport,  with  the  ocean- 
going steamers  of  the  New  York  Yacht  Club  standing- 
by  under  full  steam,  ready  for  any  emergency  ? 

Banking  is  such  a  risky  * '  trade "  that  our 
money-lending  philanthropists  would  not  endanger 
our  government  by  allowing  it  to  attempt  to  compete, 
still,  admitting  that  we  are  prohibited  by  "law"  from 
paying  the  current  price  for  brains,  no  one  could  do 
much  worse  than  to  turn  public  moneys  over  to  private 
interests  without  return. 

Our  money  (labor  in  liquid  form)  is  not  handled 
by  our  government  for  our  benefit,  but  has  so  far  been 
controlled,  for  their  own  benefit,  by  the  private  inter- 
ests to  whom  we  have  been  persuaded  and  forced  to 
entrust  it. 

There  are  billions  upon  billions  of  dollars  of 
accumulated  wealth  in  this  country  —  not  the  Landr 
on  which  all  else  depends,  but  Labor  in  concrete  form 
—  and  next  to  the  conservation  of  the  soil,  the  exist- 
ence of  our  nation  depends  upon  the  protection  of  this 
accumulated  wealth  and  the  prevention  of  it's  con- 
tinued concentration  into  the  hands  of  a  few ;  — 


64 

But  it  has  so  far  been  the  policy  of  our  govern- 
ment to  leave  it  entirely  unprotected.  It  can  not  be 
exchanged  save  upon  terms  dictated  by  the  money- 
lenders, and  if  not  kept  free  and  unencumbered  (i.  e., 
not  used  to  produce  more  wealth)  is  in  great  danger 
of  falling  into  their  maw  during  one  of  their  periodical 
raids  on  property. 

Is  it  not  high  time  that  our  federal  government, 
which  has  had  constantly  to  extend  it's  functions,  ex- 
tended them  to  the  banking  "  trade ""  I 

Perhaps  a  future  Congress  may  permit  the  mat- 
ter to  be  thrashed-out  in  open  debate  on  their  floors 
and  allow  a  proper  bill  to  go  through  instead  of  emas- 
culating or  burying  it  in  secret-committee  —  Stranger 
things  have  come  to  pass. 

The  banking  class  will  ask  where  the  govern- 
ment is  going  to  get  the  money  to  start  with  I  Very 
easily  indeed,  and  not  by  the  absurd  process  of  buying 
any  more  of  that  no  longer  useful  product,  gold  —  for 
this  would  be  to  put  our  government  needlessly  into 
debt  (which  has  been  done  too  often  already)  and  to 
temporarily  revive  a  demand  for  that  commodity. 
Gold  would  simply  have  to  be  piled-up,  and  the  vaults, 
which  are  already  well  filled  with  our  childhood  's-toy, 
silver,  would  have  to  be  enlarged  to  hold  it. 

The  people  are  even  now  half  persuaded  that 
the  credit  of  their  government  —  the  collective  credit 
of  over  ninety  million  people  habiting  one  of  the  rich- 
est of  countries  —  a  nice  little  corporation  whose  prod- 


65 

nets  alone  are  far  in  excess  of  twenty  billions  of  dol- 
lars per  year*,  and  which  are  constantly  and  rapidly 
increasing  at  that  —  while  perhaps  good  enough  for 
the  issue  of  billions  of  dollars  of  bonds  of  LARGE 
denomination,  which  the  government  must  sell  at  a 
"  rake-off "  and  pay  interest  upon,  may  not  suffice  for 
bonds  of  small  denomination  available  to  the  "  com- 
mon people "  under  the  form  of  non-interest-bearing 
Treasury-notes,  the  interest  behind  them  being  paid 
not  by  but  to  the  government,  with  an  entire  absence 
of  "rake-offs",  as  will  be  explained  farther  on. 

But  the  people  are  progressing  —  They  are  get- 
ting accustomed  to  "paper-money",  and  have  really 
come  to  prefer  the  government  ware-house  receipts 
for  gold  (the  gold-orders  or  gold-notes)  to  the  gold 
itself ;- 

In  fact  they  are  progressing  so  fast  that  they 
have  acquired  the  mistaken  notion  that  they  are  quite 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  can  do  without  the 
government,  hence  they  have  come  to  use  their  tfwn 
"paper"  (checks)  in  greater  volume  than  they  ever 
employed  the  paper  of  the  government. 

But  it  is  just  here  that  the  Bogey-Men  catch 
'em  —  Credit  is  a  very  dangerous  thing  in  a  country 
with  a  rigid  and  extremely  limited  "currency"  which 
is  controlled  by  a  few  who  can  call  for  a  "show-down" 
whenever  they  please. 


*  World  Almanac,  1911,  page  195. 


66 

Drew,  Fiske  and  Gould  put  only  fourteen  mil- 
lions in  the  pool,  the  manipulation  of  which  sufficed  to 
tie-up  the  entire  finances  of  the  country  at  the  time, 
wrecked  perfectly  solvent  concerns  by  scores  and 
spread  ruin  and  disaster  widecast. 

Today  manipulators  can  form  a  pool  for  the 
same  purpose  any  time  they  please,  and  an  hundred 
times  or  more  as  large  if  necessary.  But  they  no 
longer  go  about  it  in  such  a  crudely  direct  way  —  Nor 
is  it  necessary  for  them  now  to  put  up  the  money  them- 
selves, for  they  control  all  the  insurance  and  trust  com- 
panies and  banks  and  other  institutions,  not  only  in 
New  York  City  but  throughout  the  whole  country;  — 

They  can  use  the  people's  own  money  against 
them  whenever  they  like,  and  the  government  will  pre- 
tend it  does  not  know  what  is  the  matter. 

After  the  lapse  of  more  than  nineteen  hundred 
years,  it  is  still  necessary  to  cry;  —  "Father  forgive 
them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  Christ  gave 
them  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  but  that  was  long  ago. 


********** 


It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  of  a  great  and 
advancing  people  to  recognize  and  cure  this  rigidity 
in  it's  currency  system  by  beginning  to  supplement 
the  poor  means  for  exchange  with  which  the  people 
have  furnished  themselves  by  one  based  on  more  ad- 
vanced methods;  — 


67 

For  however  otherwise  man  may  profit  at  the- 
expense  of  his  neighbor,  a  government  which  still  pre- 
tends that  "all  men  are  equal  before  the  'law'  "  (and 
so  they  are,  theoretically,  only  the  poor  man  before 
the  "law"  is  like  the  fellow  with  one  white  chip  in  a 
poker  game  —  he  has  all  "the  rights",  but  not  much 
chance)  should  see  to  it  that  he  profit  not  through  any 
failure  on  it's  part  to  provide  proper  and  sufficient 
means  for  honest  exchange. 

Now  the  mere  mention  of  exchange  presupposes 
things  to  be  exchanged,  and  that  attention  should  not 
be  diverted  from  the  exchange  itself,  the  medium 
therefor  should  be  shorn  of  all  complexity  and  made 
so  simple  and  self-sustaining  that  manipulation  will 
no  longer  be  as  easy  as  at  present,  thus  making  it  more 
difficult  for  the  crafty  to  obtain  something  for  nothing. 

That  money  should  have  intrinsic  value  so  that 
it  can  be  hired  out  of  itself,  is  absurd  —  Money  should 
be  simply  the  certificate  of  value  of  that  which  is  to  be 
exchanged,  and  no  one  should  be  entitled  to  it's  use 
who  has  not  something  to  exchange. 

But  such  are  the  intricacies  of  modern  life, 
owing  to  man's  constantly  increasing  wants,  that  it  is 
no  longer  practicable  to  give  separate  certificates  for 
the  countless  things  exchanged ;  — 

In  order  that  the  convenience  of  a  common  de- 
nominator may  be  enjoyed,  we  must  base  the  certifi- 
cate of  value  on  one  thing  only,  and  that  thing  vital 
to  all. 


68 

There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  in  the  course 
of  our  development  the  time  will  come  when  these  cer- 
tificates of  value  will  be  based  on  the  efforts,  physical 
and  mental,  of  man  himself ; 

For  as  land  itself  is  worthless  without  labor,  be 
it  only  the  exertion  required  to  gather  the  wild  fruits 
thereof  or  to  chase  the  game  or  watch  the  herds 
thereon,  we  are  bound  eventually,  when  we  get  to  rec- 
ognize, as  we  have  begun  to  comprehend,  the  general 
community  of  interest  in  and  the  right  of  all  to  the  use 
thereof,  to  base  our  currency,  not  on  the  land  itself  but 
on  the  labor  expended  to  wrest  it's  products  from  the 
land ;  — 

But  as  it  was  only  the  other  day,  so  to  speak, 
that  we  took  the  great  step  of  minting  the  metal  which 
has  so  far  served  us,  and  as  it  is  only  today  that  we 
have  begun  to  take  the  next  great  step  of  stopping  the 
mintage  thereof,  so  we  cannot  expect  to  reach  any 
such  altruistic  stage  as  basing  anything  on  the  efforts 
of  mere  man,  until  we  have  first  taken  the  next  step  — 
labor  is  too  little  valued  and  brains  too  few  as  yet. 

Thus  I  would  suggest  that  for  the  next  step  we 
take  Land  for  a  base.  There  is  nothing  new  in  the  sug- 
gestion, but  let  us  see  how  it  would  work  out  now  that 
we  are  beginning  to  get  a  bit  more  enlightened. 

We  are  coming  to  suspect  that  the  land  is,  as 
Henry  George  said,  vital  to  all  of  us.  Private  prop- 
erty in  land  in  perpetuity  without  proper  return  to  the 
community  is  just  as  surely  doomed  as  was  property 


69 

in  human  flesh,  but  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  we  may  put 
down  this  form  of  title  to  the  proceeds  of  the  labor  of 
the  slave  without  going  to  the  lengths  we  did  when  we 
threw  down  the  no  more  cruel  and  no  more  unnatural 
title  to  his  flesh. 

But  until  this  time  comes,  and  until  God  tells 
us  whether  he  intends  the  beings  he  will  continue  to 
send  into  this  world  to  be  born  freemen  or  slaves,  let 
us  see  how  Land,  as  now  held,  can  serve  us  as  a  base 
for  the  next  step  in  our  matters  of  exchange ;  — 

It  is  surely  a  far  better  base  than  anything  we 
have  at  present  —  better  than  the  railroad  bonds  pri- 
vate interest  has  already  sprung  on  us  —  for  the  Land 
will  endure  after  our  Nation  itself  shall  have  passed 
away; 

And  then  again,  currency  based  upon  it,  as  here- 
after suggested,  would  seem  to  fulfill  the  three  requi- 
sites for  a  modern  means  for  exchange,  which  I  take 
to  be ;  — 

Stability  —  meaning  that  the  purchasing-power 
shall  remain  always  relatively  the  same ;  - 

Availability  —  or  the  right  of  those  who  have 
something  they  desire  to  exchange,  be  it  the  direct  or 
accumulated  product  of  labor,  to  be  furnished  with  the 
means  for  exchange ;  —  and 

Flexibility  —  or  that  quality  which  will  at  any 
time  bring  it  into  existence  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
meet  all  proper  demands  and  which,  after  it  has 


70 

served  it's  purpose,  will  send  it  back  to  it's  source  and 
put  it  as  automatically  out  of  existence. 

Now,  having  revoiced  the  old  suggestion  that 
the  government  go  into  banking,  let  us  repeat  that  we 
do  not  want  it  to  borrow  any  money  to  start  with, 
though  it  can  unquestionably  get  all  it  wants  for  direct 
expenditure,  let  alone  conservative  " trading",  from 
it's  own  people,  and  at  a  low  rate,  any  time  it  chooses 
to  call  upon  them  direct  as  is  done  elsewhere. 

Nor  do  we  wish  it  to  issue  any  more  "green- 
backs" or  other  fiat  currency  —  though  it's  credit  is 
quite  sufficient  for  this  also,  and  in  sums  quite  in 
excess  of  all  our  needs  for  exchange. 

So  as  not  to  violently  disturb  existing  condi- 
tions we  wish  it  to  begin  to  get  it's  money  where  the 
bankers  get  their 's  —  from  the  people. 

Where  the  banks  now  get  a  dollar,  the  govern- 
ment would  get  ten  —  it  would  literally  "rise  from  the 
ground. ' '  Foreign  labor  would  let  their  earnings  stay 
with  us  a  while  instead  of  carrying  or  sending  it  home, 
and  might  even  conclude  to  invest  part  of  it  here. 

The  government  would  not  have  to  go  into  debt 
to  get  this  money. 

Having  seen  that  no  fixed  measure  of  value  can 
be  established,  we  would  place  no  hampering  restric- 
tions on  the  rates  of  interest  to  be  paid  or  received  by 
the  government,  but  leave  this  matter  to  settle  itself 
in  a  natural  way,  though  it  is  not  proposed  that  the 


71 

government  should  compete  with  the  bankers  who  have 
already  begun  to  bid  against  each  other  for  the  moneys 
necessary  to  their  trade ; 

Nor  would  it  be  wise  to  put  the  present  banks 
out  of  business  by  any  suppressive  acts  of  legisla- 
tion — 

—  Eepressed,  they  never  have  been,  but  con- 
tinue to  charge,  as  the  railways  have  always  done,  "all 
that  the  traffic  will  bear",  usury  "laws"  and  all  other 
^laws"  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding  — 

No  social  evil  ever  has  been  or  ever  can  be  cured 
by  "law"  —  It  is  the  conditions  whence  the  evils  arise 
that  must  be  changed,  for  evil  results  only  from  the 
misuse  or  abuse  of  things  good  in  themselves. 

No!,  the  government,  in  going  into  "the  Game" 
(Curious  word  this,  "Game",  used  by  bankers,  pro- 
moters, politicians  and  statesmen  alike,  in  fact  by  the 
entire  non-producing  class  —  seems  to  be  necessary  to 
the  times)  should  not  try  "to  do  the  other  fellow  fust" 
but  act  as  umpire  and  see  that  there  is  no  foul  play. 

Though  we  would  give  the  government  the 
right  to  pay  interest  on  deposits  when  expedient  so  to 
do,  it  being  seemingly  obvious  that  no  private  institu- 
tions should  have  greater  powers  than  government 
itself,  this  would,  for  reasons  given  farther  on,  prob- 
ably not  be  done  at  all. 

Government  banks  would  be  opened  in  all  public 
offices  throughout  the  country,  and  the  people  given 


72 

the  convenience  of  opening  an  account  in  any  sum,  and 
of  checking  against  same,  without  charge ;  — 

But  with  this  very  great  difference  from  the 
system  now  in  vogue ;  —  money  would  be  received  and 
paid  in  KIND. 

To  pretend,  as  is  now  pretended,  that  you  will 
receive  silver  or  other  things  and,  through  the  alchemy 
of  high-finance,  turn  them  into  gold  for  payment  on 
demand,  is  to  make  false  pretences  —  It  can  not  be 
done ;  —  The  transmutation  of  the  metals,  so  far  as 
knowledge  has  yet  progressed,  is  thought  to  run  the 
other  way. 

The  Governments  of  the  Earth  have  not  been 
able  to  maintain  the  parity  of  metals  essentially 
different. 

The  vast  deposits  of  silver  in  the  government 
vaults  at  Washington,  both  in  coin  and  bullion,  is  an 
indigestible  lump  which  nas  got  to  be  cut  out  of  the 
body-politic  before  it  causes  a  festering  sore ;  — 

It  had  better  be  "written-off"  now  than  later 
if  soundness  be  desired,  for  to  continue  to  receive  it, 
as  it  is  received,  of  itself  but  in  the  form  of  notes, 
under  the  mistaken  idea  that  our  government  can  turn 
it  into  gold,  as  it  solemnly  and  most  foolishly  promises 
but  has  always  failed  to  do,  is  simply  begging  the 
question  —  leaving. the  nasty  thing  to  be  attended  to 
by  "the  next  fellow ",  which  is  just  what  our  states- 
men do. 


73 

*f 

However,  this  is  the  people's  business,  and  if  it 

should  now  begin  to  safeguard  same,  the  government 
should  be  honest  with  them  and  say ;  — 

I  am  going  into  the  banking  business  for  your 
sakes,  just  as  I  went  into  the  Post  Office  business  and 
just  as  I  hope  to  be  allowed  some  day  to  conduct  a 
Parcels-Post  and  Telegraphs  and  Telephones  and 
other  public  conveniences  for  you,  as  is  done  in  coun- 
tries " less-advanced "  than  we  are;  — 

I  will  receive  the  money  you  give  me  in  kind 
and  upon  demand  I  will  pay  you  back  that  which  is 
your's; —  j 

If  you  have  deposited  silver  and  another  man 
has  deposited  gold,  I  cannot  give  you  gold,  for  that 
would  be  misapplication,  nor  indeed  would  the  other 
man  be  willing  to  take  your  silver  for  his  gold,  for 
silver  is  not  legal  tender. 

As  I  agree  to  return  unto  you  that  which  is 
your's  at  any  time  you  may  choose  to  demand  it,  mani- 
festly I  cannot  use  it;  nor  indeed  would  it  be  either 
fair  or  honest  to  use  that  which  is  another's  without 
his  consent  and  for  my  own  profit. 

Under  these  conditions  I  cannot  pay  you  inter- 
est on  your  deposits,  but  I  do  assure  you  that  these 
will  be  at  all  times  not  nominally  but  actually  avail- 
able. I  am  going  into  this  part  of  the  business  at  a 
loss,  which  I  willingly  incur  as  a  matter  of  public 
necessity. 

6-G 


74 

I  repeat,  I  cannot  lend  this  money  out,  for  it  is 
not  mine  but  your's,  nor  could  I  keep  my  promise  to 
let  you  have  it  when  you  wanted  it  if  I  did. 

But  there  is  another  service  which  I  can  render 
you  —  I  can  begin  to  relieve  you  of  the  great  trouble 
and  loss  of  labor  and  positive  danger  involved  in  striv- 
ing yourselves  to  continue  to  meet  the  constantly  in- 
creasing need  for  greater  means  for  exchange; 

It  was  foolish  of  me  to  agree  to  furnish  money 
on  railroad  bonds,  for  there  is  a  far  safer  way  in 
which  I  may  begin  to  provide  you  with  a  never  failing 
means  for  exchange,  without  shocking  public  confi- 
dence at  all,  without  injustice  to  any  existing  institu- 
tion, and  which  will  possess,  nevertheless,  the  inesti- 
mable advantage  of  holding  interest-rates  at  the 
proper  livable  level  as  no  "law"  has  ever  done;  — 

It  will  no  longer  be  necessary  for  you  to  con- 
sider that  quality  of  money  which,  on  account  of  the 
momentum  it  must  continue  to  gather  to  meet  con- 
stantly increasing  necessity,  we  have  come  to  call  it's 
"velocity",  and  which  has  already  reached  such  an 
alarming  point  that  if  any  one  man  in  sixty  delay  it 
in  it's  onward  flight,  the  other  fifty-nine  will  not  be 
able  to  meet  their  obligations. 

On  the  matter  of  the  currency,  the  people  have 
never  yet  stood  together  —  They  are  like  an  intermi- 
nable line  of  wooden  soldiers,  set  up  one  behind  the 
other,  but  separated  —  Knock  the  first  man  backwards 
and  down  they  all  go,  one  after  another ;  — 


75 

But  place  them  together  (wooden  soldiers  never 
place  themselves),  and  no  power  that  we  know  of  could 
knock  them  down  —  Only  this  would  not  suit  the  boys 
who  own  the  sojdiers,  for  they  could  no  longer  play 
the  game. 

But  let  us  back  on  the  main- track  again ! 

Man  has  so  far  found  nothing  "fixed",  nor  is 
he  ever  likely  to,  so,  as  the  time  seems  to  have  come 
to  take  the  next  step  in  advance,  let  us  now  choose  a 
"standard"  for  our  measure  of  value  which,  as  it 
must  change,  will  ever  advance,  step  by  step,  as  we 
ourselves  advance,  thus  constantly  maintaining  it's 
relative  position  in  the  ever-changing  order  of  things, 
instead  of  losing  it  by  "falling"  so  dreadfully  in 
"purchasing-power",  as  all  the  metals  have  done,  our 
last  love,  gold,  more  rapidly  than  all. 

Positively  the  only  thing  at  our  present  com- 
mand which  at  all  approaches  this  high  standard,  is 
our  Land  itself,  the  demand  for  which  is  insatiable. 

We  ourselves  spring  from,  subsist  on,  and  re- 
turn through  the  soil,  hence  this  natural  and  universal 
demand  must  continue  to  increase  until  that  great 
time  comes  when  man  is  called  upon  to  justify  his  con- 
tinued existence;  when  his  earthly  body  shall  no 
longer  produce  other  bodies;  and  the  matter  of  our 
planet  shall  return  whence  it  came. 

And  we  happen  to  have  right  at  hand,  every- 
where they  may  be  needed,  and  ready  for  immediate 
reference,  complete  tables  of  all  our  lands,  however 


76 

used,  together  with  the  prices  at  which  they  are  as- 
sessed—  prices  so  conservative  that  not  one  among 
us  would  accept  same  in  exchange  therefor.  However 
few  have  been  able  to  misrepresent  their  personalty, 
all  keep  the  land  rates  as  low  as  possible. 

I  will  not  refer  to  the  land-tax  as  proposed  by 
that  great  and  human-boweled  economist,  the  late 
Henry  George,  conditions  being  not  quite  ripe  with  us 
as  yet  for  the  general  application  of  any  system  so 
simple,  direct  and  equitable.* 

The  governing  class  prefer  to  levy  taxation  in 
an  indirect  manner,  so  that  they  may  escape  paying 
their  just  share.  For  instance  when  they  levy  on  the 
bonds  and  stocks  of  a  corporation,  they  do  not  levy 
against  the  corporation  itself,  which  could  easily  re- 
coup before  paying  interest  and  dividends ;  — 

No!,  they  levy  on  such  individual  holders  at 
home  as  may  not  be  able  to  successfully  conceal  them, 
or  on  such  as  may  be  foolish  enough  not  to  care  to  lie 
about  the  matter  —  the  foreign  holder  escapes  Scot 
free ;  — 

This  enables  them  to  sell  the  "  securities ' '  to 
better  advantage  abroad,  and  their  one  aim  is  to  sell 
them  while  they  can  —  It's  a  fine  business  and  will 
remain  perfectly  "legal"  while  they  continue  to  con- 
trol the  law-making  power. 

Everywhere  in  our  country  taxation  of  all  kinds 
is  unjustly  distributed  —  which  is  why  the  rich  grow 
richer  and  the  poor  poorer. 

*  Other  countries  have  already  begun  to  apply  it  with  success,  and  that 
most  enlightened  of  all  our  States,  Oregon,  has  already  started  something 
very  mu^h  like  it  — perhaps  the  entering  wedge. 


77 

But  let  us  not  advert  to  the  subject  of  taxation 
as  a  whole,  but  confine  ourselves  to  the  levy  on  city 
lots  and  to  the  way  a  foolish  government  discourages 
real  progress  and  places  a  premium  on  shoddy  and 
unsafe  construction  of  all  kinds ;  — 

Little  is  built  nowadays  to  last  —  the  "law" 
makes  it  unprofitable.  The  level  and  the  square  have 
passed  from  common  use  —  the  loss  of  time  is  too  ex- 
pensive, for  the  better  the  building  is  the  more  it  is 
taxed.  Buildings  are  rushed-up  by  contract  in  the 
cheapest  manner,  and  honest  workmanship  is  no 
longer  possible.  "After  me  the  deluge."  —  Such  is 
one  of  the  natural  results  of  taxation  misplaced. 

The  tax  instead  of  being  placed  upon  the  lot  is 
spread-over  the  improvement  upon  the  lot,  thus  taxing 
labor  itself;  —  Eesult  —  no  more  labor  than  is  posi- 
tively necessary  to  prevent  the  building  collapsing; 
And,  worse  still,  part  of  the  tax  which  should  be  paid 
by  the  owner  of  the  vacant  lot  adjoining  is  imposed 
upon  the  builder,  thus  encouraging  speculation  at  the 
expense  of  enterprise. 

A  fine  system  truly,  and  on  a  par  with  all  our 
stealthy  processes  of  taxation. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  case  of  an  individual 
owner  of  vacant  city  lots  sufficiently  progressive  to 
desire  to  improve  same  for  his  own  benefit  and  inci- 
dentally that  of  the  community; 

He  has  managed  to  save  enough  money  to  buy 
the  lots  outright  and  wishes  to  borrow  the  money  to 
make  them  immediately  useful; 


78 

He  might  incorporate  and  issue  long-term 
bonds,  but  no  one  would  purchase  them  save  at  a  ruin- 
ous discount  over  and  above  the  rate  of  interest,  and 
as  he  cannot  afford  to  pay  this  he  is  compelled  to  bor- 
row the  money  on  first-mortgage. 

Now  why  is  it  that  in  the  entire  United  Statea 
he  can  find  nowhere,  either  individual  or  corporation 
(and  such  individuals  as  know  "the  game"  carefully 
conceal  their  identity  under  a  corporate  name  and 
have  "  straw-men ",  their  own  clerks,  rob  the  borrower 
in  advance  of  all  he  will  "stand  for"  under  the  guise 
of  "commissions",  "examination  of  titles",  &c.,  &c.) 
who  will  let  him  have  the  money  for  a  longer  term 
than  five  years  (preferably  three  or  one  unless  they 
happen  to  have  stuck  him  for  higher  than  the  usual 
market  rates)  I 

As  the  income  from  real  property  in  any  com- 
munity rarely  if  ever  exceeds  the  percentage  there  de- 
manded for  the  use  of  money,  it  is  obvious  that  the  in- 
come from  the  building  it  is  proposed  to  erect  can 
carry  the  interest  on  the  loan  wanted  but  can  never 
repay  the  principal,  and  that  the  only  way  this  can  be 
done  is  from  the  proceeds  of  the  land-rent  or  by  fur- 
ther saving  on  the  part  of  the  borrower  or  both. 

If  the  would-be  builder  when  purchasing  the 
lots,  has  had  the  foresight  to  mark  the  tend  of  the 
city's  growth,  his  land-rent  will  increase,*  but  the  rent 
from  the  building  will  never  increase  but  will  be  sure 

*  Here  comes  in  the  question  of  "unearned  increment",  already  agi- 
tated in  countries  more  advanced  than  our's,  and  the  principle  of  which 
is  already  recognized  in  certain  well-governed  communities  —  It  is  a  fit 
morsel  for  this  collation  but  I  will  not  serve  it  here. 


79 

to  be  lessened,  as  time  goes  on,  by  the  ever-increasing 
cost  of  keeping  it  in  repair. 

Now  if  all  the  money-lender  wanted  were  a  just 
hire  for  his  money,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  figure 
out  just  how  long  it  would  take  for  the  land-rent  to 
cover  the  principal,  and  the  loan  could  be  made  for 
that  term ;  — 

But  the  money-lender  is  by  no  means  content  with 
a  just  hire  for  his  money  —  Nothing  could  be  possibly 
farther  from  his  designs  —  He  intends  that  the  loan 
shall  be  renewed  as  often  as  possible,  because  he 
profits  by  the  "  renewals "  at  the  further  expense  of 
the  borrower; 

And  if  he  fail  to  1 1  call ' '  the  loan  when  due,  the 
borrower,  if  he  be  a  wise  borrower,  had  himself  best 
arrange  and  pay  for  the  renewal  at  once,  because 
should  he  allow  the  matter  to  run  along  until  money 
became  really  "  tight ",  he  may  be  quite  sure  that  the 
lender  will  suddenly  remember  that  his  loan  is  " over- 
due "  and  call  it  immediately.  He  will  be  very  polite 
about  it,  to  be  sure,  but  he  will  not  fail  to  collect 
another  commission  for  the  renewal,  nor  to  raise  the 
interest  rate  and  otherwise  "squeeze"  him  to  "the 
limit"  -for  has  he  not  caught  him  in  a  tight  place  ? 

Then  again  there  is  always  the  chance,  on  which 
the  money-lender  counts,  that  the  loan  may  fall  due 
when  money  is  "tight"  —  And  the  percentage  of 
chance  against  the  borrower  here  alone  is  as  great  or 
greater  than  the  percentage  which  led  to  the  general 
closing-down  of  roulette  and  other  games  of  chance  — 
Only  the  borrower  is  helpless,  while  the  gamblers 
threw  their  money  away  voluntarily. 


80 

In  some  places  in  Europe  protection  is  extended 
where  needed,  on  the,  to  us,  unknown  theory  that  the 
powerful,  who  do  not  need  protection,  can  take  care  of 
themselves ;  — 

But  here,  even  the  Great  State  of  New  York 
wants  it's  pound  of  flesh.  For  the  sake  of  apparent 
decency  it  charges  it  against  the  lender,  but  it  knows 
perfectly  well  that  the  borrower  is  compelled  to  pay 
the  one-half  of  one  per  cent  which  it  charges  for  the 
filing  of  a  mortgage ;  and  it  knows  further  that  the  bor- 
rower in  turn  endeavors  to  fix  the  charge  on  those  still 
less  able  to  bear  it ;  — 

But  the  finest  churches  in  the  land  are  in  New 
York,  and  does  not  the  Bible  tell  us  that  "from  him 
that  hath  not,  even  that  he  hath  shall  be  taken  away 
from  him!" 

But  I  keep  referring  to  our  currency  system  as 
it  is  —  Let  me  now  endeavor  to  suggest  the  remedy, 
taking  a  bird's-eye- view  of  currency  as  it  might  be;  — 

We  acknowledge  title  to  land  —  and  we  always 
will  acknowledge  same,  however  readjusted  by  the 
more  equitable  distribution  of  taxation  which  the 
future  is  bound  to  bring  forth. 

The  era  of  free  land  has  passed  in  this  country. 
Land  is  no  longer  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  and  is  be- 
coming more  valuable  day  by  day ;  — 

And  we  have  fairly  complete  cadastres  at  hand, 
ready  for  immediate  use. 


81 

The  Land  is  therefore  eminently  suitable  for  a 
base  in  taking  our  next  step  towards  a  modern  means 
for  exchange. 

I  would  have  the  federal  government  emit  gen- 
eral Land-Notes  of  the  usual  denominations,  or  in 
such  as  may  from  time  to  time  be  most  desired,  and 
keeping  always  well  in  advance  of  all  possible  de- 
mands, so  that  there  may  be  no  delays,  issue  them  as 
applied  for,  to  the  holders  of  unencumbered  title  to 
taxed  lands  of  all  kinds,  taking  a  mortgage  on  said 
lands  in  exchange  as  a  guaranty  for  the  return  of  the 
notes  issued ;  - 

I  would  limit  the  total  advance  to  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  assessed  valuation  of  the  property  mortgaged, 
but  I  would  allow  the  owner  to  obtain  any  sum  up  to 
said  sixty  per  cent,  in  one,  two  or  more  loans  severally 
on  each  piece  or  pieces  of  property,  as  he  might  de- 
sire, treating  the  several  mortgages  alike; 

I  would  allow  no  State  to  tax  the  Federal  mort- 
gages ; 

Although  it  is  quite  safe  to  accept  the  present 
cadastres  everywhere  to  begin  with,  I  would  provide 
for  federal  inspection  of  future  changes  therein,  ar- 
range for  these  at  regular  intervals,  and  prepare  fed- 
eral tables  where  the  local  assessors  might  incline  to 
advance  values  unduly; 

I  would  have  the  general  Land-Notes  with 
out  interest,  without  reference  to  any  particular  trans- 


82 

action,  guarantee  them  and  make  them  legal-tender 
throughout  the  country; 

But  the  mortgages  securing  these  notes  as 
issued,  would  be  particular  transactions,  between  the 
individual  and  the  government  and  the  principal 
thereof  would  be  repayable  in  Land-Notes  only. 

The  mortgages  would  bear  interest  not  to  ex- 
ceed five  per  centum  per  annum,  payable  semi-an- 
nually  on  fixed  dates,  and  would  run  for  six  months 
and  "thereafter  until  paid",  the  idea  being  that  the 
party  needing  the  medium  for  exchange  must  pay  a 
minimum  of  six  months7  interest,  but  that  thereafter 
the  mortgage  might  run,  at  his  option,  as  long  as  de- 
sired, and  at  the  same  rate,  the  government  having  the 
usual  right  of  foreclosure  for  non-payment  of  interest 
and  the  right  to  call  the  loan  for  readjustment  when- 
ever any  change  in  the  tables  of  assessed  valuations 
showed  an  advance  by  the  loan  beyond  the  sixty-per- 
cent limit. 

The  interest  would  be  applied  to  the  credit  of 
the  government's  banking  service  and  in  considera- 
tion thereof  there  would  be  no  charges  for  "examina- 
tion of  title "  or  other  imposition  of  any  kind  what- 


For  the  sooner  the  government  gets  all  titles  in 
easily  accessible  shape  the  better,  and  it  should  be^ 
done  at  public  expense. 


83 

Any  government  mortgagor  may  cancel  any 
one,  two  or  more  of  his  mortgages,  severally  or  collect- 
ively, at  any  time  by  paying  principal  and  accrued 
interest  (six  months  minimum  always)  and  the  gov- 
ernment shall  cancel  the  mortgage  or  mortgages  and 
give  him  a  release  without  charge. 

The  principal  must  be  paid  in  Land-Notes 
which  shall  be  destroyed  upon  the  cancellation  of  the 
mortgage. 

The  interest  may  be  paid  in  any  "  currency "' 
but  if  paid  in  Land-Notes  these  shall  not  be  destroyed 
but  paid  out  again  by  the  government  to  it's  employees 
or  otherwise,  so  that  the  outstanding  Land-Notes  shall 
at  all  times  equal  the  Land-Note  mortgages  of  record. 

Eventually,  the  profits,  even  limiting  the  inter- 
est to  five  per  cent  and  cutting-out  the  many  other 
impositions,  of  the  business,  when  it  worked  down  to 
it's  bearings,  would  begin  to  absorb  the  wealth  of  all 
our  communities,  even  as  the  Bankers  have  for  long 
years  absorbed  it,  but  then,  if  it  were  not  desired  to 
run  the  entire  government  from  this  account  alone,, 
the  interest  rates  could  be  reduced. 

It  is  obvious  also  that  as  principal  only  can  be 
paid  in  Land-Notes,  the  interest  charges  would  even- 
tually wipe  out  all  other  forms  of  currency,  and  as  we 
have  already  seen,  and  shall  see  again,  that  this  must 
be  done  in  any  event,  this  would  be  perhaps  the  easiest 
way  to  do  it  though  events  might  not  permit  it ;  — 


84 

But  after  we  arrive  at  this  stage  we  may  be 
ripe  for  the  next  step  in  advance. 

It  must  be  observed,  that  in  issuing  these  Land- 
Notes,  the  government  would  appropriate  nothing  to 
itself  but  a  heavy  and  perhaps  temporarily  proper 
charge  for  the  i  i  accommodation. '  * 

It  would  not  be  "debasing  the  currency "  but 
elevating  it,  for  the  new  currency  proposed  would  be 
based  upon  real  assets  instead  of  upon  a  series  of 
debts  as  is  the  case  with  our  present  system. 

The  people  could  have  all  the  currency  they  re- 
quire without  the  slightest  danger,  as  there  would  never 
be  a  superfluity  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  minute  it 
ceased  to  be  worth  five  per  cent,  that  moment  it  would 
be  returned,  written-off  and  destroyed  together  with 
the  mortgage. 

It  will  be  objected  by  the  class  which  trades 
and  speculates,  and  worse,  on  the  needs  of  all,  that  this 
41  paper "  would  "run  all  the  gold  out  of  the  country ;" 

They  could  undoubtedly  send  it  out  of  the  coun- 
try or  lock  most  of  it  up,  as  they  have  done  many  times 
before;  They  might  even  scare  the  government,  as 
they  have  also  done  before  when  it  did  not  seem  in- 
clined to  immediately  do  their  bidding; 

But  we  have  never  had  a  real  "show-down"  yet 
—  the  people  have  been  bluffed  too  easily  —  and  if  it 
comes  to  the  "real  thing",  the  banks  themselves  are 
in  a  very  bad  plight; 


85 
> 

Through  their  crooked  way  of  keeping  book* 
and  the  great  ease  with  which  they  have  heretofore 
obtained  money  under  false  pretences,  they  have  ex- 
posed themselves; 

For  they  have  bound  themselves  to  pay  the 
people  twelve  to  fifteen  billions  of  dollars  in  gold  upon 
demand,  and  by  declining  to  allow  their  governors  ta 
continue  to  suspend  the  "law",  they  can  be  wiped  out^ 
for,  as  has  been  stated,  the  visible  supply  of  this  metal 
in  the  entire  world  is  less  than  eight  billion  dollars,  of 
which  but  an  insignificant  proportion  remains  in  this 
country. 

No!,  the  chances  are  the  money-lenders  would 
not,  when  they  saw  the  people  really  determined,  let 
matters  get  to  any  such  pass. 

Foreseeing  that  this  flexible,  reaZ-property- 
asset  Land-Note  system  would  soon  drive  what  little 
gold  there  is  outstanding  into  the  government  vaults^ 
where  it  would  remain  with  the  silver  until  sent  to- 
countries  still  in  their  infancy  or  were  ordered  cast 
into  statues  commemorating  our  present  financiers^ 
these  gentry  would  be  the  first  to  quietly,  for  they  are 
very  quiet  in  their  ways,  change  their  gold,  and  re- 
ceipts for  gold  and  silver,  into  government  bonds. 

For  the  government  would  have  to  be  prepared 
to  redeem  not  only  the  gold  but  our  entire  present 
rotten  currency,  and  as  the  only  way  it  could  do  this 
would  be  by  the  issuance  of  interest-paying  bonds  for 
the  metals,  the  loss  would  fall,  as  usual,  not  on  the 
class  but  on  the  mass ; 


86 

But  it  will  have  no  difficulty  in  so  doing  if  it 
issue  them  in  small  denominations  and  make  them 
directly  accessible  to  the  people,  on  whom  the  heavy 
charge  must  fall,  for  the  people  will  mortgage  their 
unencumbered  lands  and  take  them  up  on  account  of  the 
profit  in  the  transaction,  for  the  government,  in  this 
instance,  must  necessarily  pay  a  higher  rate  than  it 
demands ; 

Though  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  difference 
in  rate  will  not  amount  to  as  much  as  the  government 
has  been  accustomed  to  grant  heretofore  in  "  rake- 
offs"  to  specially-privileged  individuals. 

The  turning  in  for  redemption  of  that  funny 
part  of  our  present  currency  which  is  based  upon  gov- 
ernment bonds,  will  not  increase  the  debit  balance  of 
the  government  at  all,  but  it  will  make  a  decided 
change  in  the  holding  of  the  creditor,  who  will  have 
the  bond  itself  as  security  instead  of  second-hand 
notes  as  at  present. 

The  only  apparent  loss  will  be  in  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  gold  and  silver,  which  childhood's  toys  our 
governmental  parent  must  take  off  our  hands; 

For,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  will  be  no  real 
loss  at  all,  for  the  labor  employed  in  their  production 
is  lost  already,  and  is  a  small  price  to  pay  for  our  edu- 
cation if  we  can  but  arrive  at  a  better  understanding 
of  the  real  requirements  of  exchange. 

But  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  that  large  part  of 
the  people's  credits  in  the  present  banks,  amounting 


87 
x 
to  about  nine-tenths  of  the  total  "  deposits  ",  which  the 

banks  cannot  pay  for  the  simple  reason  that  they  never 
have  had  and  never  will  have,  under  the  present  *  *  sys- 
tem ",  the  "  currency "  to  pay  it  with. 

The  people  cannot  avail  themselves  at  once  of 
the  nine-tenths  part  of  their  supposed  "deposits"  as 
these  nine-tenths  were,  as  we  have  shown,  not  deposits 
at  all  but  mere  book-credits  which  have  themselves 
been  passed-on  by  the  banks  to  third  parties. 

Such  as  have  been  put  out  at  interest  by  Sav- 
ings Banks,  Trust  and  Insurance  Companies  and  such, 
are  probably  secured  by  mortgage,  in  one  form  or 
other,  on  real  property,  though  as  the  credit  lent  is  not 
theirs  but  your's,  the  loans  are  probably  far  in  excess 
of  any  advance  the  government  would  make  as  the 
base  for  a  safe  currency; 

But  the  "national"  banks  pass  the  larger  part 
of  your  credits  on  to  third  parties  on  mere  notes  of 
hand  ("commercial  paper")  without  other  security 
than  the  hoped-for  continued  solvency  of  the  borrow- 
ers, which,  as  we  have  seen,  may  be  wrecked  at  any 
time.  They  also  lend  a  large  part  on  stocks  and  bonds, 
and  these  are  good  while  a  market  for  them  lasts. 

Listen  to  what  the  "Literary  Digest"  says  on 
this  point  in  it's  issue  of  the  2.1"  ultimo,  quoting  the 
"Toronto  Globe" ;- 

i  <  The  richest  country  in  the  world ;  the  Mis- 
sississipi  Valley,  the  greatest  storehouse  on 
all  the  globe:  cotton,  wheat,  sugar,  live-stock, 


88 

corn,  everything.  The  most  enterprising  peo 
pie  of  history.  Marvelous  industrial  devel- 
opment. A  wealth  of  capital.  And  yet  one 
cardinal  sin,  overcapitalization.  Such  over- 
capitalization that  the  foreign  investor  has 
turned  against  it  all.  He  has  sent  back  to 
the  United  States  (at  a  profit)  most  of  their 
securities  that  he  bought  some  years  ago,  and 
he  wants  no  more  until  the  water  is  squeezed 
out.  The  savings  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  as  represented  by  the  banks,  trust 
companies,  trust  funds  of  all  kinds,  even  many 
bonds  of  first-class  rank  —  nearly  all  the  sav- 
ings of  the  United  States  have  been  tied  up 
to  this  watered  stock  that  was  bought  by 
Americans  or  sold  back  to  them  by  the  for- 
eigners. But  not  only  is  this  watered  stock 
tied  up  to  the  nation's  savings,  but  the  in- 
vestors who  borrowed  the  money  to  carry  this 
watered  stock  have  dropt  it  and  the  stock  is 
now  the  property,  out  and  out,  of  those  who 
lent  money  on  it  —  trust  companies,  bankers 
and  banks,  trust  funds,  capitalists,  and  the 
like.  The  shareholders  in  the  trust  compa- 
nies and  banks  and  the  beneficiaries  of  trust 
funds,  many  of  them  do  not  yet  know  of  this 
state  of  affairs! 

They  are  all  of  them  risking  your  credits  for 
their  own  benefit; 

So  you  cannot  hope  to  get  nine-tenths  of  what 
belongs  to  you  until  the  "law"  is  applied  —  which  it 
never  yet  has  been  in  your  favor. 

I  never  was  good  at  story  telling,  as  my  desire 
for  information  runs  in  other  directions,  but  I  have  a 


89 

dim  recollection  of  one  about  three  artists  being  given 
a  commission  to  make  a  drawing  of  a  camel :  The  Ger- 
man went  to  study  him  at  the  Zoo  and  the  Englishman 
sought  him  at  first  hand  in  the  desert,  but  the  French- 
man sat  in  his  studio  and  drew  one  from  "the  depths 
of  his  imagination  "  —  And  it  was  said  that  the  French- 
man's drawing  was  the  best  of  the  lot;  — 

So  as  I  do  not  care  to  bother  the  Treasury  De- 
partment, and  might  be  asked  whether  my  intentions 
were  honorable  if  I  went  to  Wall  Street,  I  will  follow 
the  Frenchman's  example,  and  try  to  draw  a  balance 
sheet,  showing  the  situation  of  the  Banks  today,  viz ; — 

The  Banks  of  the  Country  (Insurance  Companies  not 
Included)  in  Account  with  The  People. 

Dr. 

Capital  $1,880,000,000.00 

Surplus  and  undivided  profits. . . .  1,952,600,000.00 
Deposits  of  the  people,  subject  to 

repayment  to  them  on  demand, 

in  gold 15,283,400,000.00 


$19,116,000,000.00 

Gr. 

Loans    $12,521,800,000.00 

U.  S.  Bonds 773,400,000.00 

All  other  bonds  and  securities. . . .  3,950,000,000.00 
Cash     (including    national    bank 

notes  "cfc?.")  1,423,800,000.00 

Unimagined 447,000,000.00 

$19,116,000,000.00 


90 

I  find  the  foregoing  figures  on  page  46  of  the 
Treasury  Department  Document  No.  2589  of 
Dec/ 5" 710,  where  they  are  given  as  of  June  30", 
1910.  You  can  turn  to  other  pages  of  the  same  docu- 
ment and  get  entirely  different  figures,  but  these  will 
do  ;  — 

It  will  be  seen  that  although  the  bankers  have 
drawn  out  all  that  they  have  required  for  their 
living  and  for  investment  elsewhere,  their  "undi- 
vided profits",  after  paying  all  the  heavy  charges 
of  conducting  the  business,  still  exceed  their  entire 
nominal  capital.  The  Controller  does  not  tell  us 
how  much  of  this  capital  was  paid-in  in  the  first 
place,  or  how  same  was  paid.  I  have  called  the 
"trade"  a  TAX  on  the  people  —  Is  it  or  is  it  not? 

But  observe  my  statement  carefully,  gentlemen. 
I  have  arranged  the  figures  in  a  different  manner  than 
that  in  which  the  government  publishes  them  ;  — 

Manifestly  if  the  banks  take  credit,  as  they  have 
done,  for  national  bank  notes,  they  cannot  also  take 
credit  for  the  U.  S.  Bonds  behind  them,  hence  whence 
do  the  seven  hundred  and  seventy-three  millions  TJ.  S. 
Bonds  come  from  that  they  do  take  credit  for? 

The  banks  could  not  have  bought  them  willingly 
because  they  pay  always  as  much  and  sometimes  more 
interest  on  deposits  than  the  bonds  bear !  Were  their 
controlling  stockholders  hard-up  and  compelled  to 
dump  these  on  them  temporarily? 


91 

I  have  passed  four  hundred  and  forty-seven 
millions,  which  I  could  not  find  (though  I  do  not  doubt 
it  is  there  somewhere)  as  an  item  too  insignificant  to  be 
considered  and  have  put  it  down  as  "unimagined"  ;  — 

But  what  of  the  three  billions,  nine  hundred  and 
fifty  millions  —  an  amount  which  exceeds  the  combined 
capitals  and  surpluses  of  the  banks  —  which  they  do 
report  but  cannot  put  down  as  a  loan  ? 

Can  it  be  possible  that  the  Editor  of  the  "To- 
ronto Globe "  is  a  man  of  imagination  also,  and  can  it 
be  that  this  entry  covers  the  "securities"  (they  would 
naturally  send  their  stocks  first,  though  a  few  bonds 
may  have  been  included  to  permit  of  the  wording  of  the 
entry)  which  he  believes  to  have  been  sent  back  to  us  ! 

And  have  our  moneys  been  taken,  without  our 
knowledge  or  consent,  in  the  vain  attempt  "to  support 
the  market"  I 

But  if  this  be  so,  then  most  of  the  gambling 
banks  of  the  country  are  insolvent ! 

But  the  Bank  Examiners  must  have  known  this. 
Were  their  reports  suppressed  also  ? 

This  would  explain  many  things,  gentlemen,  — 
but  I  have  let  my  imagination  run  far  enough. 

Now  when  any  servant  borrows  the  money  from 
the  particular  concern  you  are  bossing  in  person,  it 
does  not  make  much  difference  to  you  how  well  he  in- 
vests it  or  how  soon  he  promises  to  pay  it  back ;  If  you 
can  catch  him  you  stop  his  career  then  and  there ;  — 


92 

But  when  it  comes  to  the  greater  part  of  yonr 
funds  and  savings,  which  they  tell  you  you  may  have 
back  whenever  you  want,  you  are  so  ignorant  of  the 
workings  of  and  so  hypnotized  by  the  very  name  of 
"  high- finance "  and  become  so  mentally  paralyzed 
when  they  speak  of  millions,  that  you  quite  lose  sight 
of  the  fact  that  it  is  far  more  important  that  you 
should  boss  or  carefully  look  after  those  who  boss  and 
use  your  capital  than  to  stand  guard  over  the  smaller 
till  at  home. 

You  would  not  even  know  what  they  were  doing 
if  they  stole  the  United  States  Treasury  from  under 
your  very  nose. 

A  glance  at  the  foregoing  table  will  show  you 
that  you  cannot  have  your  money  back  whenever  you 
demand  it,  and  that  your  credit  is  being  used  for  pri- 
vate ends. 

But  it  would  be  wise  to  begin  to  apply  the 
brakes  slowly,  and  as  these  mortgages,  notes  or  other 
evidences  of  debt  mature,  have  the  people  to  whom 
your  credits  (Labor)  has  been  lent,  go  to  the  govern- 
ment for  credit,  and  where  they  have  real  property  on 
which  to  obtain  Land-Notes  let  them  get  same,  and 
where  they  have  not  then  let  them  mortgage  that  which 
they  have  at  higher  rates  to  those  who  can  obtain 
Land-Notes,  and  let  you  be  repaid  that  which  is  your 's ; 

And  where  they  have  nothing  on  which  they  can 
obtain  Land-Notes,  either  from  government  or  private 
individual,  then  let  those  who  have  lent  your  credits 
without  proper  security  make  those  credits  good ; 


93 

And  if  there  is  to  be  a  loss  —  and  there  surely 
will  be  great  loss  —  then  let  us  suffer  that  loss  at  once 
and,  getting  back  what  is  left  us,  start  afresh  on  a 
sound  basis,  so  that  others  may  no  longer  fatten  on  our 
labor. 


Now,  though  the  people  will  eventually  do  their 
banking  entirely  through  the  central  government,  it 
would  not  be  wise  to  even  think  of  driving  the  present 
banks  out  of  business  —  Beneficent  growths  are  neces- 
sarily slow. 

We  have  seen  that  it  is  not  proposed  that  the 
government  should  pay  interest  on  deposits.  Interest 
is  hire  paid  for  the  use  of  money,  and  as  the  govern- 
ment cannot  and  will  not  use  the  deposits,  it  will  not 
pay  interest  on  this  account; 

But  the  private  banks  do  use  other  people's 
money  and  can  therefore  afford  to  pay  interest  on  de- 
posits —  and  it  is  proper  that  they  should  pay  interest 
on  such  deposits; 

Only,  the  person  who  hires  his  money  out  for 
use  has  no  right  to  expect  same  to  be  returned  to  him 
on  demand,  —  nor  should  these  banks  continue  to  lead 
their  depositors  to  believe  that  they  can  have  their 
money  back  when  asked  for. 

The  most  that  can  be  done  is  to  stipulate,  before 
depositing  the  money  in  a  private  bank,  that  same  must 
be  returned  on  a  certain  date,  and  this  then  becomes  a 
private  contract ; 


94 

But  if  the  money  be  lost  (taken  from  it's  owner 
without  return  to  him)  —  and  hire  for  speculative 
purposes  always  involves  risk  —  it  becomes  a  matter 
between  these  individuals  and  the  contracting  banker, 
with  which  the  rest  of  the  community,  and  the  govern- 
ment have  nothing  to  do. 

There  will  be  room  enough  for  some  time  to 
come,  for  these  private  banks,  for  aside  from  the  end- 
less legitimate  needs  of  agriculture,  manufacture  and 
trade,  there  will  always  be,  as  at  present,  a  demand  for 
gambling  purposes  —  or  at  least  until  our  human  na- 
tures are  far  more  advanced  than  at  present  —  until 
we  cease  to  seek  to  get  something  for  nothing  —  until 
we  learn  that  the  only  way  to  grow  rich  is  to  give ; 

But  until  this  time  comes,  it  is  very  much  better 
for  gambling  to  be  conducted  openly  than  behind 
closed  doors  —  for  it  is  idle  to  think  of  controlling 
human  passion  through  human  "law",  as  inclination 
must  too  frequently  dominate  reason. 

I  claim  no  patent  to  these  ideas,  which  must 
have  occurred  to  many  men,  and  which  will  thrust 
themselves  upon  any  mind  that  lays  itself  open  to 
thought. 


Let  us  try  to  perceive  and  give  an  outline  of  the 
probable  effects  of  the  remedy  proposed ;  — 

1"  —  Our  present  makeshift  currency  would  be 
wiped  out. 

2"  —  We  would  have  a  stable,  available  and  flex- 
ible medium  for  exchange  in  it's  place,  with  real  assets 
behind  it  instead  of  debts. 


95 

3"  —  The  first  hire  of  the  medium  for  exchange 
would  go  to  the  federal  government,  which  is  properly 
entitled  thereto. 

4"  —  The  super-hire  would  be  paid  by  those  hav- 
ing no  permanent  stake  (Land)  in  the  community; 
though  even  this  would  be  held  in  check,  naturally  and 
as  no  human  "law"  has  ever  held  it. 

5" —  Agriculture,  manufacture  and  trade  could 
never  be  "held-up"  and  exploited,  for  they  could  get 
the  moneys  required  on  their  own  lands,  or  from  other 
owners  of  lands,  the  moment  private  bankers  de- 
manded more  than' the  service  or  risk  was  worth. 

6"  —  Accumulated  landed  wealth  would  be  abso- 
lutely protected  and  not  left  at  the  mercy  of  financial 
pirates  as  at  present. 

7"  —  There  would  be  no  more  "commissions" 
for  "finding"  the  medium  for  exchange,  for  all  en- 
titled to  it 's  use  would  know  where  to  get  it,  and  when 
they  went  for  it  they  would  no  longer  be  sent  to 
"straw-men"  in  the  basement. 

8" —  Titles  would  no  longer  be  examined  an 
hundred  times  over,  with  full  charges  therefor  on  each 
occasion  as  the  private  perquisites  or  remuneration  of 
men  retained  to  keep  the  money-lenders  on  the  safe 
side  of  the  "law." 

9" —  Gambling  on  the  Stock  and  Produce  Ex- 
changes would  not  be  stopped,  but  it  would  be  more 
difficult  to  wipe  the  other  fellow  out  as  money  could 
not  be  cornered  and  rates  would  never  again  reach 
300  %. 


96 

10" —  The  sane  people  and  the  workers  of  the 
nation  could  deposit  their  moneys  with  the  govern- 
ment, perfectly  secure  of  getting  it  back  the  moment 
they  wanted  it  for  their  own  needs  or  for  conversion 
into  wealth  in  fixed  form. 

11" —  And  finally,  no  proper  demand  could  be 
made  which  could  not  be  met,  for  we  could  put  bil- 
lions more  into  circulation  than  we  have  ever  yet  had, 
and  still  the  out-go  and  the  come-back  could  be  as 
easily  managed  as  the  Bank  of  England  now  manages 
it's  gold  —  through  the  interest  rate,  which  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury  should  be  empowered  to  change 
at  will,  without  the  intervention  of  a  corrupt  and  un- 
manageable Congress,  after  a  ' '  recall "  string  had  been 
tied  to  his  leg  to  discourage  malfeasance  in  office. 

According  to  the  twelfth 
census,  the  true  value  of  the  real 
property  and  improvements  in  the 
Continental  United  States,  was,  in 

1900 $52,537,628,164.00 

and  in  1904. 62,341,492,134.00 


so  we  will  estimate  1910  at 77,000,000,000.00 

and  take  off  one-third  for  improve- 
ments        25,666,666,666.00 


51,333,333,334.00 
and  another  third  off  this 17,111,111,111.00 


to  arrive  at  a  conservative  esti- 
mate of  the  assessed  valuation  of 
the  land  alone $34,222,222,223 . 00 


97 

At    60  %    of    the    assessed 

valuation  of  the  land $34,222,222,223.00 

as  a  base  for  the  issue  of  Land- 
Notes,  there  would  be  available, 
in  kind 20,533,333,334.00 

as  against  the  miserably  insuffi- 
cient and  dangerous  mixture  *. .  3,419,500,000.00 

(less  than  half  of  which  is  gold, 
remember)  with  which  we  are 
now  struggling  to  effect  ex- 
changes, the  clearings  alone  of 
which  amount  annually  to  t 169,025,172,600.00 

(which  accounts  for  the  " velocity " 
being  put  at  60  t ) 

and  to  protect  wealth  amounting 
to  §  125,000,000,000.00 

Something  must  be  done  and  that  quickly,  to 
improve  the  situation,  for  to  allow  further  concentra- 
tion of  control  of  what  little  "currency"  there  is  into 
the  hands  of  a  private  Trust,  and  to  permit  them  to 
continue  to  milk  us  through  the  mere  book-keeping  de- 
vice of  "credit",  is  to  confirm  our  bondage. 

As  things  are  at  present,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  is  most  carefully  restricted  to  lending  the 
public  moneys,  without  interest,  to  those  who  have  him 
appointed,  which  may  account  for  the  way  the  post  has 
come  to  be  eagerly  sought  after  as  a  stepping-stone  to 
the  high-paid  sinecures  in  the  gift  of  special-privilege. 

*  Controller  of  the  Currency,  Document  No.  2589,  Dec.  /5/10,  p.  62. 
fThe  World  Almanac  for  1911,  p.  258. 

{"The  Independent",  N.  Yk.,  Sep./ 8/10,  quoting  the  "Wall  Street 
Journal ' '  and  Professor  Jevons. 

§The  World  Almanac  for  1911,  p.  251. 


98 

With  Finance  the  Secretary  has,  at  present,  no 
more  to  do  than  the  clerk  in  a  country  store,  the  very 
word  having  come  to  suggest  paper  companies  and 
unjust  (the  word  "illegal"  does  not  fit)  combinations 
of  all  kinds. 

We  have  also  a  Department  of  Commerce  and 
Labor,  the  statistical  branches  of  which  may,  in  time, 
be  made  very  valuable,  but  the  Science  of  Statistics, 
like  other  Sciences,  is  quite  useless  until  applied.  If 
the  Secretary  would  invite  his  assistants  to  invite  the 
men  who  do  the  work,  down  to  the  lowest  clerk,  to 
make  suggestions  as  to  how  their  work  might  be  ap- 
plied and,  in  special  cases,  allow  freedom  in  research 
and  confrontation,  he  might  learn  what  it  really  is  that 
disturbs  commerce  and  distresses  labor ; 

But  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  Secretary 
has  the  power,  even  had  he  the  desire,  to  do  so.  The 
chances  are  he  is  put  where  he  is  to  discourage  re- 
search, or  at  least  io  hold  it  within  limits. 


Hamilton  remarked  to  Jefferson  that  the  people 
could  be  governed  only  by  force  or  interest,  which  was 
undoubtedly  quite  true  at  the  time. 

The  question  is,  are  the  people  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced, mentally,  today,  to  take  their  government  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Interests,  and  are  they  capable  of 
using  force  judiciously,  through  the  ballot-box,  to  gov- 
ern themselves  f 


99 

Voltaire,  Hamilton,  Carlyle  and  Buskin  lived  in 
other  times,  and  the  great  body  of  men  of  whom  they 
spoke  as  not  being  competent  to  govern  themselves, 
were  most  certainly  incompetent  so  to  do,  but  this  was 
because  the  Church,  pagan  and  Christian,  throughout 
the  ages,  had  purposely  kept  them  mental-dwarfs  so 
that  the  class  might  fatten  off  the  mass. 

But  today,  the  Church,  though  parasitic  still,  is 
senile  and  has  lost  it's  teeth  —  It  begs  where  formerly 
it  despoiled  and  it's  slaves  are  breaking  their  mental 
fetters,  but  hankering  after  the  flesh-pots  still,  it  yet 
clings  to  the  skirts  of  the  "upper  classes/' 

I  do  not  expect  to  see  self-government  come  in 
my  time  —  But  it  is  coming  —  We  will  have  it  when 
we  are  fit  for  it. 

Boston  thinks  a  good  deal  of  itself,  yet  Garrison 
was  dragged  through  it's  streets  with  a  rope  round  his 
neck  and  Phillips  cast  off  by  his  family  as  an  execrated 
social  outcast,  because  they  dared  raise  their  voices 
against  property  in  human  flesh.  Were  the  people  of 
Boston  fit,  at  that  time,  to  govern  anybody  ? 

Is  that  branch  of  the  great  labor  party  which 
continues  to  deal  in  murder  and  sudden  death,  fit  to 
govern  anybody  f 

The  President  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  Colo- 
rado very  lately  remarked*  that  many  of  the  women  of 
her  State  had  proven  unfit  to  exercise  the  franchise 

*"Ladies'  Home  Journal",  Jan'y/1"  /  11. 


100 

granted  them,  and  that  scores  who  had  worked  for  the 
Eepublican  Party  one  year  had  worked  for  the  Demo- 
crats the  next  and  had  told  her  frankly  that  "the 
Democrats  gave  them  more  money." 

If  woman,  on  whom  the  moral  tone  of  the  race 
depends,  sells  her  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
what  can  be  expected  of  her  sons  ! 

But  when  the  point  of  view  of  these  mentally 
deficient  persons  changes;  when  they  realize  that  no 
one  can  afford  to  buy  their  votes  unless  he  gets  some- 
thing in  return ;  when  they  realize  that  they  would  not 
trouble  to  buy  the  votes  if  they  could  only  get  back 
what  they  paid  for  them; 

When  they  realize  that  for  every  couple  of  dol- 
lars or  so  that  pass  into  their  pockets  on  these  occa- 
sions, the  people  who  are  responsible  for  and  hire 
those  professionals  who  do  the  passing,  intend  to  and 
always  have  gotten  an  hundredfold  back; 

And  when  it  finally  begins  to  penetrate  into 
their  benighted  understandings  that  this  great  profit, 
this  hundred  for  one,  does  not  come  out  of  the  pocket 
of  "the  other  fellow",  but  that  the  power  to  tax  thus 
periodically  purchased  takes  every  dollar  of  it  out  of 
their  very  own  pockets,  they  will  suddenly  awaken  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  not  the  wise  ones  but  the  fools. 

The  mentality  of  our  people  is  a  bit  slow,  but 
there  are  great  hopes  for  its  ultimate  development. 
Self-interest  will  strike  them  first  —  Eighteousness 
will  come  later. 


101 

The  recent  and  contimiedly  successful  attempts 
of  the  progressives  of  all  parties  to  change  the  form  of 
government  by  introducing  the  initiative,  the  referen- 
dum and  the  recall  and  the  scheme  to  govern  cities  by 
commission,  shows  that  some  of  the  people  are  awak- 
ening to  a  desire  to  govern  themselves,  and  where  they 
have  succeeded  they  are  starting  well,  for  they  are 
centralizing  or  fixing  the  responsibility  so  that  they 
may  hold  their  servants  to  account,  a  thing  heretofore 
absolutely  impossible. 

And  when  their  time  comes  to  select  the  national 
executive,  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  add  virility, 
mental-potentiality  and  singleness  of  purpose  to  the 
necessary  qualifications  of  the  individual  who  shall 
hereafter  occupy  this  great  post,  and  take  away  the 
second  term  from  before  his  eyes  so  that  he  may 
eschew  politics  and  not  be  tempted  to  dishonor. 

Any  man  who  believes  in  God,  and  feels  his  God 
in  himself,  must  believe  in  the  God  in  his  fellow-man, 
and  however  he  himself  may  fall  and  fall  again,  must 
hold  to  that  faith  in  the  people  as  a  whole  which  was 
held  by  Abraham  Lincoln  and  other  servants  of  God. 

And  this  is  the  base  for  my  belief  that  the 
people  will  soon  be  able  to  govern  —  not  only  others, 
but  themselves. 

But  the  degenerates  will  last  while  the  world 
endures  for  God  himself  has  told  us  that  all  shall  not 
be  received. 


102 

Well  !,  the  Democrats,  thanks  to  the  plutocrats, 
are  in.  Whether  they  will  "stay  bought "  or  heed  the 
"handwriting  on  the  wall"  remains  to  be  seen. 

********** 

Since  writing  the  above  I  see  that  the  author  or 
sponsor  of  "the  best  tariff  bill  we  ever  had",  in  his 
desire  to  further  assist  the  public,  this  time  in  the 
better  handling  of  their  money,  has  abandoned  the 
name  "Central  Bank"  for  the  measure  which  he  is 
pushing  so  actively.*  But  a  lien  by  any  other  name 
will  hold  as  fast  —  A  lien's  a  lien  for  a*  that. 

*  For  account  of  a  well-known  gentleman,  who  seems  to  control  the 
Associated  Press  as  easily  as  he  is  beginning  to  control  pretty  much  every- 
thing else.  With  whose  money  does  he  do  this,  gentlemen — his  own  or 
your's?  Why  is  this  gentleman  apologizing  through  every  Press  in  the 
land  before  his  actions  have  even  been  impugned  ?  It  reminds  one  of  the 
enormous  sums  squandered  by  the  old  Canamd  Canal  Company  on  the 
Press  of  France 


103 


EPILOGUE. 

Upper-Class  man  by  birth  and  preference; 
Union-Bepublican  (son  of  a  Northern  Officer)  by  de- 
scent; Land-Lord  through  marriage;  Gold  miner  by 
mistake;  Debtor  by  necessity;  And  respecter  of  the 
honest  beliefs  of  all  men;  I,  Henry  Clifford  Stuart, 
iconoclast,  write  this  article  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  cause 
of  Truth  and  Justice ;  — 

God  have  mercy  on  me,  a  Fool. 


1 '  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 
And  departing,  leave  behind  us, 
Foot-prints  on  the  sands  of  time." 

— Longfellow. 

"And  one  of  the  sublimest  things  in  the  world  is  plain  Truth." 

— Bulwer. 
But;— 

"Truth  will  ever  be  unpalatable  to  those  who  are  determined  not  to 
relinquish  error." — E.  W.  Montagu. 


104 


But  have  renounced  the  hidden  things  of  dishon- 
esty, not  walking  in  craftiness  nor  handling  the  word 
of  God  deceitfully ;  but  by  manifestation  of  the  truth, 
commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in 
the  sight  of  God. 

— II  Corinthians,  IV,  2. 


For  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against 
principalities,  against  powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  dark- 
ness of  this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places. 

—Ephesians  VI  :  12. 


Note. — If  I  had  not  been  discouraged  from  attending  both  Sunday  school  and  church 
by  a  wise  father  who  had  himself  been  sickened  by  a  lot  of  bigots  and  who  refused  to  allow 
my  mind  to  be  stunted,  I  might  not  think  as  much  of  the  Bible  as  I  do.  It  has  no  monopoly 
of  the  Truth  by  any  means,  for  Truth  may  be  found  everywhere  by  those  who  seek  it,  but 
I  prefer  it  because  it  is  the  book  of  my  people.  H.  C.  S. 


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